As gold prices soar to historic levels, New York City’s Diamond District has emerged as a focal point of the latest global gold rush. With gold surpassing $4,000 per troy ounce for the first time in October, traders, refiners, and everyday sellers are converging on Manhattan’s iconic 47th Street to capitalize on the surge.

The Wall Street Journal spent a day inside a bustling bullion exchange to document how gold scraps — from broken jewelry to old coins — are transformed into valuable commodities. Inside the tightly packed storefronts and back-room exchanges, dealers weigh, test, melt, and price gold with precision, moving rapidly as markets fluctuate by the minute.

For many sellers, the record prices present a rare opportunity. Individuals arrive with inherited jewelry, damaged chains, or unused gold pieces, often unaware of their true value until they see the scale tip and hear the day’s spot price. Dealers, meanwhile, rely on decades of experience and real-time market data to assess purity and remember one critical rule: margins are thin, speed matters, and trust is everything.

Once purchased, the gold scraps are refined, melted down, and consolidated into bars or ingots, which are then sold onward to investors, manufacturers, or international buyers. The process highlights how global economic uncertainty — including inflation concerns, currency instability, and geopolitical tensions — continues to drive demand for gold as a trusted store of value.

The Diamond District’s gold trade also reflects a broader financial reality. As central banks increase reserves and investors seek safe havens, gold’s role in the global economy has only strengthened. What begins as a handful of broken jewelry on a counter in Midtown Manhattan can quickly become part of a much larger financial system.

With prices at record highs and volatility showing no signs of slowing, New York’s Diamond District remains at the center of the action — a place where tradition, trust, and timing converge as gold once again proves its enduring worth.