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For some, the credit crisis now has much less of a crunch.

Amid soaring debt and house repossessions, US pawn shops have reported a wave of people handing over their gold and diamond dentures.

The above pair, pictured at the State Pawners and Jewellers in Chicago, Illinois, were said to have belonged to an owner desperate to pay $1,500 for his daughter's college fees.

Scott Cohen, the store owner, said that the unnamed man who pawned them had paid $15,000 for the dentures - inlaid with seven carats of diamonds and three rubies - when new.

Mr Cohen initially admitted he was "kind of grossed out and kind of shocked" when the seller pulled them out of his mouth - but he was quickly moved by the story, and agreed to give him the 90-day loan that he desperately needed minus the customary 10 per cent per monthly interest charge. "It was the most touching thing I'd ever seen," he told the Chicago Sun-Times.

The tale appears to be far from an isolated incident, as people in the United States - which has by far the largest number of pawn shops in the world - find ever more ingenius ways of raising cash to meet their financial obligations with recession biting.

Earlier this year, Orlando news website Local6.com reported what it said was a "dental gold rush" at pawn shops across Florida.

"People are really cashing in. If a dentist passes away, their kids come in with a big pile of gold teeth," said Scott Taber, owner of Taber Coins, a coin dealer, said.

He said a rapidly rising number of people were handing over gold teeth in pawn shops. "People are digging up the gold and starting to sell it," he said.

Pawn shops outside the US also appear to be experiencing a similar boom.

In Russia, Moscow's stores have reported roaring business with Vadim Karashuk, the head of Moscow's 16 state-owned pawn shops, estimating that they collectively loan around $200,000 a day compared to about $130,000 two months ago.

"We're lending out more cash now than ever because the banks are giving less credit," he said "Before it was mainly older people with cheaper stuff, but now it's middle class people with more valuable gold and jewellery."

Although there are far fewer pawn shops in the UK than in North America, Scandinavia and Australia, these too are said to be experiencing a growing number of professional visitors - not simply those from traditionally low-income families.

"Over the last three to four years, we have noticed the amount of professionals coming into our stores increase," David Towse, marketing manager of pawnbrokers Harvey and Thompson, told the Reuters news agency.

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