As a result of the almost 8% decline in the price of Gold many dealers were surprised to see the demand for gold jump with clients buying up coins and bars and appearing in unexpected numbers like cicadas on the East Coast.

Some dealers have likened the appetite for the yellow metal as the most compelling it has been since the Lehman Brothers failure in 2008, and in a few particulars, the most noteworthy on record.

“We feel the bull market is very much intact even if there’s a lot of uncertainty at the moment for investors,” Marcus Grubb, managing director of investment at the World Gold Council, remarked. “There’s some switching into equities in the United States going on – this has affected gold to some degree – but we don’t believe you’re seeing this great rotation as it’s called.”

The “great rotation” is a term that came out of Bank of America Merrill Lynch and refers to the common belief that record-low bond yields would persuade investors to rotate out of bonds and into stocks during 2013.

Grubb maintains that gold’s drop was caused by a very big short sale in the futures market in New York, and what we’re seeing is a recovery as physical demand rallies. He references India and China where gold customers are paying a premium for physical gold.

“In nearly 30 years of business at Dillon Gage, this is the busiest we have ever been in terms of physical demand for gold and silver,” observed Terry Hanlon, president of Dillon Gage Metals, one of the more substantial international precious-metals dealers based in Texas “The recent correction brought more buyers than sellers into the market.”

“The massive wave of buying we’re seeing has reminded market participants from New York to Beijing that demand for gold bars, coins and jewelry is supportive of the long-term trend for gold,” stated David Schraeder, a spokesperson for the World Gold Council.

“We are seeing nearly all buyers and little or no sellers, which is making for a tight market with rising premiums,” said Mark O’Byrne, executive director of GoldCore. “Most physical owners are buying for the long term and will not sell in the coming months even when prices recover.”

All of this indicates that we are still witnessing the greatest gold bull market the world has ever seen and serves to contrast the difference between digital gold and the physical demand for gold.