Jim Keller and his wife have dealt in gold, silver and precious metals for more than 30 years. They've seen the ups and downs but he's shocked by the amount of people calling him about buying and selling gold.

"We sell to different countries, we buy from different countries and the increase has been, I would say, 500% in the last month,” said Keller.

Gold and silver prices have been on the rise for a while but rumors of oil moving off the dollar standard has a lot of investors looking at gold. There has also been international grumbling about the weak dollar for years and what they see as U.S. government efforts to intentionally keep it low.

"We have low interest rates now which are being used to stimulate the economy but which also lead to a weaker dollar as well," said Syracuse University Economics Professor Don Dutkowsky.

All of this has been helping precious metals and especially gold.

"It's been a hedge against inflation since the beginning of time and it's no different now except, with all the unrest throughout the world, they want something solid to hang onto,” said Keller.

Professor Dutkowsky thinks gold is more of an emotional investment than a practical one but Jim Keller says he sees it as a safe haven.

"Evidently, so do other people because it goes as fast as I can sell it,” says Keller.

Dutkowsky and several other economists doubt that oil will move off the dollar standard since it is the most common currency held, even if it is weak. Several economists said it is a serious issue and that "grumbling" from the rest of the world about U.S. currency is getting louder.