The price of gold has touched $1,000 an ounce for the first time in six months. Is it a sign that investors feel the recession is over though? Others are less convinced about the strength of the recovery are moving into gold, which is usually sought a safe-haven from economic turmoil.

During times of inflation gold is an attractive commodity, it has risen 13.6% in the previous 12 months. You can look at this in two ways. It could be a sign that the recovery is over and things are getting back to normal.

If you are optimistic and see the rising value as a sign of economic recovery, buying gold bullion coins before their price gets any higher could make for clever trading. Selling them in the future will give you a profit on your investment. On the other hand, if you own any gold bullion coins now would be a good time to sell.

On the other hand you might see high gold prices as a sign that we are still in the grip of the recession as gold is used to protect wealth. Evidence of this could be that the US dollar has been depreciating in value which does not signal recovery.

The higher gold prices has been caused because investors and institutions are not certain which way the economy is going. Governments are increasing their gold reserves to protect their economic standing in the world.

How interest rates are going to change is one of the questions financers are asking. All that encourages gold hoarding and stock piling.

Gold reached an all-time record of $1,032 an ounce in March 2008. March 2009 was the last time that the price reached $1000 per ounce.

Gold is sold in troy ounces. 480 grains or 31.1035 grams is the equivalent of a troy ounce. One troy ounce is equal to 1.09711 avoirdupois ounce which are widely used to measure weights in the US and UK.

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