In 1967 Harrison was transferred by the Navy to San Diego, California. He continued to serve in the Navy, while Joanne obtained her real estate license in 1970 and opened her own office in 1973. After Harrison was discharged from the Navy in 1979, he worked part-time in his wife's office. Declining real estate sales caused by interest rates as high as 18 percent cost Harrison $1,000,000 and the collapse of this business in 1981. Business career In April 1981, Harrison and his wife, having only $5,000 left, moved with their three sons to Las Vegas, Nevada, where Harrison and his son Rick opened Gold & Silver Coin Shop in a 300 square foot shop at 1501 Las Vegas Boulevard. Five years later, the family relocated the business to a larger building at 413 Fremont Street, where it remained for two years before the Harrisons lost their lease. In 1987, the Harrisons obtained a license to buy and sell secondhand goods. Harrison's son Rick relates in his autobiography that he and his father had long-sought to convert the store into a pawn shop, but a 1955 Las Vegas law limiting pawn licenses to one per every 50,000 residents precluded this. By 1988 the city's population of over 200,000 was rapidly growing, so Harrison called the city statistician periodically to monitor the population. By 1989 the city's population reached 250,000, and after some legal struggles, the Harrisons obtained their pawn license. That year Harrison and his father opened the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop at 713 Las Vegas Boulevard South, less than two miles from the Las Vegas Strip. By 2005, Harrison and his father were loaning out about $3 million annually, which brought them about $700,000 in interest income. The most common item brought into the store is jewelry. As of July 2011, the store had 12,000 items in its inventory, 5,000 of which are typically held on pawn. Even when absent from the show, according to an episode of Pawn Stars, Harrison usually was the first to arrive at the shop in the morning, and by 2010, had not had a sick day since 1994. By 2006, the shop had developed a reputation for carrying special sports items with unique histories, including a 2001 New England Patriots Super Bowl ring that belonged to American football cornerback Brock Williams. It also served gamblers who, according to Harrison's son Corey, often