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I would wait for a pullback in the price of gold, and I would consider silver, before gold. There is a battle going on between fundamentals influencing inflation as well as deflation.

Recession is deflationary, since it is caused by a reduction in economic activity, which influences a reduction in demand. There is a desperate effort by the federal reserve to inflate the currency to lessen the burden of the massive public and private debt. Servicing debt by paying the interest and some principle on it is much easier when it is paid with paper currency devalued because of inflation.

Gold has risen from $255 per troy oz in 2002, to more than $900 US, this past month, on speculative demand driven by belief that US paper currency, and to a lesser extent, other nations' paper currency will coninue to decline in value as central banks areound the world attempt to inflate by adding to the money supply. Crude oil has followed gold, but silver has lagged.

There is a credible school of thought that believes gold is overextended, and will fall with crude oil and other commodities as declining demand driven deflation takes hold im formerly robust economies.

If you read about the problems of counterfeiting in the 1979 to early 1980 move up in the price of gold and silver, and the confiscation of gold in private hands by the US federal government in the early 1930's, as well as factors that can negatively affect the price of shares of stock of gold producers, you might want to avoid gold paper shares, gold bars, and other non-immediately authenticated gold items.

If your gold investment needs to be assayed before it can be traded for paper currency or other valuables, it is not liquid. The difference between buying a stock or other security and buying the metal is personal control and declaration of profits for tax purposes, after you sell.

I think deflation is going to win out, because it is least expected, but very obvious, just look at residential real estate valuations for an example. Are the values of homes higher than a year ago, or are the paper currency that the properties are priced in higher?

The purpose of the Fed lowering short term interest rates is to reflate the economy, as in 2001 to 2004, but this time, the effort will fail, because the problem is not availability of monry to borrow, i.e. liquidity, but a problem of solvency of major banks, broherages, and the federal government itself.

There will be a huge "fire sale", a liquidation of paper and property assets that has already started, but has a ways to go before it peaks, If peopel are not yet impressed that "cash is king", they will be, and they will liquidate their gold, taking profits on it's nice run (it's nearly quadrupled in price in 5 years, while comments in this thread mention a further upside of just over 50 percent.

My opinion is to wait for a pullback in gold's price to buy in cheaper of to take more time to confirm that inflation is going to work as a tactic to combat recession. A sign of this would be if US housing prices stabalize, and even rise in price for a few months in a row.

Secondly, I believe silver is a much better investment than gold, if you believe gold is soon going to trade at $1500. Silver has lagged gold hugely...in January 1980, when gold peaked at $800, silver touched $50 per oz for a short time, and it is only $16.79 per oz. tonight. Silver has industrial demand, medical treatment and power transmission technology demand potential, and seems more squeezed in it's availability compared to need vs. availability of gold. Practical demand for gold is primarily for jewelers and recesision should lessen demand for gold from that sector.

Societal instability influences both the price of gold and silver. If US paper currency purchasing power collapses because the fed's inflation strategy is successful , do you think owning gold bars or coins worth a minimum of $1,000 each will be the practical way to exercise your well planned and superior purchasing power, or would these extreme conditions, or concern that they might be coming, be better potential for a dramatic up move in gold's price, or in easy to carry, easy to authenticate, and easily accepted in lieu of paper money, pre-1965 US silver coins, containing 90 percent pure silver?

You can see updated prices on this page, from this reputable dealer:
$16.78 oz spot silver price, less .14 = 16.64 X 715 oz = $11897.60 for US pre-1965 silver dimes and quarters, $1000 face value, or $6000 for $500 face value.

As I said, I think it will be easier to get trapped in an investment in gold at current prices, than it will be to get trapped in US "junk silver" coins. The US stock market is not stable, and when the market drops, the stock prices of precious metal mining companies will decline with the market, at least temporarily. Gold had never been above $900 before very recently, but silver has been at $50 in the last 30 years, and is under $17.00 now.

Why would you be inclined to think that the price of gold has the potential for a higher percentage rise, vs. current price, than silver does?