Gold’s record prices have Fresno County families digging through their drawers and cashing in, local jewelers tell GV Wire.

Stephanie Foster-Mullins, marketing director for the Fresno Coin Gallery, said the shop hasn’t seen a rush like this since 2012 when gold first topped $2,000.

“People are coming in — a lot of people are thinking about recycling old jewelry that they’ve had for a long time or they don’t care for, or maybe they inherited,” said Foster-Mullins. “They’re really surprised at the amount of money they might have sitting around in their jewelry box.”

Gold peaked in April, topping $3,500. So, for the customer who recently got $12,000 for a high-karat gold chain, they might have gotten $9,000 when gold was worth $2,400 a year ago.

Mary Ann Orloff, president of Orloff Jewelers, say she’s seen the same thing.

“People are finding that they want to use it for a down payment to buy a house, so this is the time,” said Orloff.

Gold One of the Best Performing Assets in the Market

Moody’s recently downgraded the U.S. credit rating to “Aa1” from “Aaa,” sending gold prices upward, according to Investing.com.

However, gold has been benefitting from uncertainty in the U.S. economy for some time.

Tariffs from President Donald Trump sent investors looking for safe havens for their money.

“The United States lost a little favor with the world,” said Stephen Foster, president and owner of Fresno Coin Gallery. “The tariffs have probably concerned people about the way we managed our dollar policy and trade policy. I think that it caused people to want to divest of some U.S. dollars, and the world purchased more gold.”

Gold has been one of the best performing assets in the market, climbing 35% in a year, and almost 88% in 5 years.

“I think gold is more likely to be $4,000 before it’s back to $2,000 again, so I’m pretty bullish,” Foster said.