In the Windy City, a Gold Rush Continues December 21, 2009 – Posted in: Press

By PETER A. McKAY
Published: December 21, 2009
Wall Street Journal

We figure that now is a good time to check in again with Tobina Kahn, a Chicago estate jeweler we’ve used previously as a highly unscientific barometer of gold demand and the economy’s woes.

Through most of the post-Thanksgiving period, she said there have been more sellers than buyers passing through her shop, with many saying they need to unload family heirlooms to raise cash to pay bills, mortgages, or other expenses. In the last few days, the buyer/seller ratio has evened out, but not necessarily for a pleasant reason.

Ms. Kahn attributes some of the increase in buyers to last-minute gift shopping. But a good chunk of it — perhaps a third — consists of people looking for jewelry as an investment for themselves in lieu of stocks, bonds, or other &paper assets.” One telltale sign: Ms. Kahn said she got four emails Monday seeking jewelry that incorporates gold coins — an apparent attempt to hoard the coins from a source that has been relatively untapped during gold’s recent run to new records, which has exhausted the supplies of many traditional coin dealers.

“A lot of these coin pieces were made in the sixties and have been out of style for awhile,” said Ms. Kahn. “A few years ago, I couldn’t give them away. Now, I get four emails in one day asking for them? You can tell it’s not people shopping for their grandmas and cousins.”

See the whole article on WSJ.com…