“Everyone and their grandmother has a sign out saying, ‘We buy gold,’ ” said Ron Lieberman, the owner of Palisade Jewelers in Englewood, N.J. He estimates that 10 times as many people come into his store to sell gold now as when the metal was selling for $300 an ounce at the beginning of the decade. “I hear people come in and say gold is going to $2,000.”

Image Raw, unrefined gold, before it is turned into the shiny bars and coins being scooped up by investors nervous about the economy. Credit... Christoph Bangert for The New York Times

Jewelry store shoppers aren’t the only ones forecasting lofty prices. Jim Rogers, an investor who has made his name investing overseas and in commodities, predicted to Bloomberg Television last week that gold might reach $2,000 an ounce  prompting a rebuke from Nouriel Roubini, an economist who gained attention for his early warnings about the global economic crisis. At a conference in New York on Wednesday, Mr. Roubini described Mr. Rogers’s forecast as “utter nonsense,” saying that there aren’t any inflationary or economic pressures that would drive the price of gold to $2,000 an ounce.

Even the most bullish of gold lovers were surprised last week when the Reserve Bank of India stepped in and bought 220 tons of gold from the International Monetary Fund for $6.7 billion, a sign that other central banks might move away from dollar-denominated assets like Treasury bonds in favor of the precious metal. India’s huge purchase means that gold will now account for about 6 percent of India’s $285.5 billion of foreign exchange reserves  up from the previous level of about 4 percent.

“We have money to buy gold,” said Pranab Mukherjee, India’s finance minister. “We have enough foreign exchange reserves.”

On Thursday, Sri Lanka’s central bank disclosed that it, too, was buying gold, in a trend that could hurt the United States over time because it needs foreign bond buyers, especially central banks, to finance its growing debt. Gold closed at $1,095.10 an ounce on Friday, down from its intraday high but up nearly 5 percent for the week.

Adjusting for inflation, gold would have to top $1,885 to set an all-time record.

China has already doubled its gold reserves over the last six years, but the Indian move underscored how even the most traditional investors are shifting a portion of their assets into bullion.