SAN DIEGO — It might be time to cash in your gold jewelry and coins. For the first time ever, one troy ounce of gold is worth $2,500. That means a 400 ounce giant gold bar is worth $1 million.
Christopher Altbaum with Coin Mart Jewelry showed us gold bars, coins and jewelry now worth a pretty penny.
"All this kind of stuff that people have in their jewelry collections that just sit and people don't use anymore, this stuff is very expensive now, the prices have gone way up," Altbaum said. "If you have stuff like this, you should definitely consider cashing it in."
We weighed CBS 8 photojournalist Mike Edison's 14-karat gold chain. He bought it for $400 around 15 years ago, now it's worth $722 based on its weight.
Altbaum said 20% of a person's savings should be in metals, especially gold.
"Gold is the ultimate hedge against inflation," he said. "It's the safe zone where people move their money when there's problems in the world."
He compared the metal market to the stock market: when there's a dip, you should buy. He thinks the price per ounce will jump to $3,000 and said others will say even higher.
Higher gold prices can be a sign investors expect the Federal Reserve to cut its benchmark interest rate soon. When interest rates fall, gold prices tend to rise.
"A coin at $2,500 you can put it in your pocket, you can walk pretty much anywhere and go sell it," Altbaum said.
Owning gold is also considered a long-term investment and a safety cushion for economic hardships.
"Pretty much everyone that's ever bought gold is sitting on profit because it's way up," Altbaum said. "I don't see how anyone could have lost money on gold right now."
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