Gold Tested in the Furnace of Greensboro

In 2018, a small jewelry shop on Elm Street in Greensboro, North Carolina, caught fire. When firefighters cleared the wreckage, owner Marcus Hadley sifted through the charred remains of his life's work. Display cases had melted. Wooden cabinets were ash. But there, pooled in the rubble, he found something remarkable — pure gold, separated from its settings and alloys, gleaming against the blackened debris.…