Steve Crupi reporting

Although Nevada is known as the Silver State, gold is now stealing the show.

With the global economy still on shaky ground, the price of gold hit another all-time high Tuesday. And Nevada has quickly become the number one state for gold mining.

Local businesses that specialize in precious metals are seeing an unprecedented spike in activity as the frenzy for both buying and selling grows. Behind gaming and tourism, mining is the richest industry in Nevada and it's getting stronger every day.

On the global market, the price of gold has hit $1,068 an ounce.

Mark Scott of Sahara Coins, located on Sahara near Tenaya, says there are two big reasons for the skyrocketing price of gold: One is the declining value of the U.S. dollar; the other is a general lack of confidence in the global economy.

"The worst case scenario is you have a big pile of gold at the end. That's always been the golden rule."

As gold has gone up, so has the price of silver, another precious metal mined extensively in Nevada. A 100 ounce bar of silver that previously sold for $350 is now valued at well over $2,000.

And customers looking for something other than stocks or bonds are turning to coins these days. Stores say customer activity has been split evenly between people wanting to buy gold and silver and people wanting to cash in on coins and jewelry purchased when the metals were cheaper.

And all that buying and selling amounted to more than $200,000-worth of transactions Tuesday.

Even though the price of gold is surging, the same is not happening for the stock prices of several big mining companies. Their value has actually slipped a bit since last month.