 |
| Gold bars are pictured at the Ginza Tanaka store in Tokyo October 23, 2009. (REUTERS/Issei Kato) |
 |
| Gold busts of (l-r) Chinese leaders President Hu Jintao, former president Jiang Zemin, late patriarch Deng Xiaoping and Mao Zedong, are displayed at a gold exhibition in Beijing, China on November 8, 2009. (WANG ZHAO/AFP/Getty Images) |
 |
| Illegal miners search for gold on the mountain of Tumpang Pitu in Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia on November 21, 2009. The mine has been in operation since June 2009 and local villagers have began protesting because the waste produced by the mine is polluting the environment. (REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas) |
 |
| Molten gold and flux used to remove impurities glows red hot as it is melted in an induction melting machine at Dvir & Stoler Refining in New York, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 4, 2010. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg) |
 |
| Pedro Linares uses a calculator to determine how much the company he works for, Fast Cash Gold Parties, will pay for the gold jewelry that he is weighing on October 30, 2009 in Hialeah, Florida. As the price of gold remains high, the company is busy setting up these modern day Tupperware parties to buy people's unwanted gold in their homes. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) |
 |
| Gold figurines on display in a shop window in Hong Kong on November 17, 2009. (MIKE CLARKE/AFP/Getty Images) |
