Panama City - The price of gold reached an all-time high this week, selling for more than $16 hundred an ounce. Local businesses that buy gold are quite busy these days. The owner of Coin and Bullion Reserves says, depending on your financial situation, it is a good time to buy or sell.

People lined up Tuesday to get their jewelry weighed.

"We actually have two lines of people in the store everyday now. One line of people is selling gold because it's at an all time high..." owner of Coin and Bullion Reserves Larry Lee said. "...There's another group of people that is here everyday who is afraid of the direction the American dollar is taking and the fact that it becomes less and less everyday, and they're looking for something to buy."

Lee says the price of gold is not going up because it's worth more, but because the dollar is worth less. Lee says if someone wants to protect his money, it is not a bad idea to invest. But not everyone agrees.

Financial planner Bobby Roberts says gold's recent rise reminds him an awful lot of the housing market boom.

"All the sudden people bought into it and a year later, two years later, three years later they're still trying to figure out how they're going to sell it and break even because at the end of the day, i don't care what it is you're buying, if you're trying to make money the main object is buy low sell high," Bobby Roberts with Roberts Financial Planning Services said.

Lee says a lot of people are selling their broken gold jewelry. But they buying are investing in gold coins. Experts say the price of gold may continue to rise as we get closer to the august deadline for a national debt agreement.