The Indian gold market which has traditionally been in gold jewellery is shifting towards gold coins and gold bars. Banks, brokers and even post offices in India are promoting the sale of gold coins. The sale of gold coins has been up during the build up to the religious festival Diwali which culminated on Saturday.

One of the main reasons for this change is that investors are keen to buy gold in the form of gold coins and gold bullion because they are providing a more stable investment opportunity with the price of gold set to raise still further.

These changes are significant because India is the largest consumer of gold in the world. The approximate consumption of gold in India is around 700 tonnes per year.

Britain’s most prestigious department store is capitalizing on the rising demand for gold bullion with the launch of a new luxury item – gold. Harrods customers can now buy gold in the form of gold bars and gold coins from the store’s private bank.

This provides yet another example of how more and more investors are turning to gold to protect their wealth at a time of economic uncertainty.

The gold will be aimed at private investors and includes 12.5kg bars which will be on sale on the lower ground floor and displayed behind reinforced glass with additional security measures.

According to reports a new way of making gold has been discovered! A bacterium has been found that turns gold compounds into the metallic gold that we are familiar with. This was discovered when bacteria C. metallidurans was found to be present in two gold deposits in Australia.

The most likely use will be in the creation of biosensors which could help to identify new deposits of gold.

Investors are keen to buy gold because of its potential as a safe haven in times of economic uncertainty and this new discovery is an exciting development for those with an interest in gold.

According to economists the price of gold is set for an explosive rise having reached new record highs last week. The metal reached $1,048.50 an ounce last Wednesday pushing past the peek reached in March last year.

The increase is due to investors shifting to buy gold as a safe investment as the dollar price continues to fall.

Julian Jessop at Capital Economics was quoted in a recent article as saying, "gold is one of the few investments where there is a case for explosive gains in the coming weeks".

Yesterday’s daily financial BBC lunchtime programme “Working Lunch” featured an item on gold. The item examined the Asian jewellery market and how it is changing. It featured a family run jewellery business in Leicester and highlighted how the local market is altering.

Previously the majority of their sales were of 22 carat gold jewellery but with the current strength of the price of gold their customers are trading in any scrap jewellery they have as it is now worth up to six times what they had paid for it.

As well as the trade in scrap jewellery their biggest turnover is now gold bullion as this offers a much more stable financial investment. Customers are now more inclined to buy gold in the form of gold bars and gold ingots.

Today gold bullion prices remained about $1,000 per ounce as a pressurised dollar continued to weaken. The US dollar is under pressure because of last week’s employment data which indicated that future recovery may not be as robust as previously predicted.

There had been a wobble in the price of gold on Friday after figures announced showed that US employers had cut more jobs than expected in September sending unemployment soaring to a 26 year high of 9.8%. However, as investors buy gold the price has regained its position at over $1,000 per ounce today.

Currency prices did not fair as well and remained under pressure this morning and falling again showing that in uncertain economic times gold is a more reliable investment than currency.