Gold Price History And Historical Prices (1915-2025)

Gold has lengthy been a well-liked method to make investments, and the shiny yellow metallic has delivered intervals of enticing returns, particularly throughout instances of financial stress. Gold’s means to behave as a retailer of worth is well-known, however it’s additionally gone by means of intervals — even a long time — the place the value has fallen. 

Nonetheless, gold has retained its luster for a phase of traders who like its reasonable returns, its defensiveness and its low correlation to the efficiency of different belongings. These qualities give gold the flexibility to diversify an funding portfolio, lowering its volatility and its riskiness. 

Gold has had intervals the place its efficiency has been wonderful, outperforming key benchmarks just like the Customary & Poor’s 500 inventory index and posting sturdy returns within the Seventies and in 2020-2025. However different instances a dismal displaying has stretched for a few years. The interval from 1980 to 2000 noticed the value of gold stagnate, although there have been events the place it rose briefly. 

The worth of gold was mounted below the gold normal for a few years, so a chart reveals costs flatlining for lengthy intervals of time, till the value of gold was periodically adjusted. However that modified for the U.S. in August 1971, when U.S. President Richard Nixon canceled the convertibility of the U.S. greenback into gold, permitting the value of gold to drift freely available on the market.

Gold is effectively referred to as a defensive funding, and its value rises when traders anticipate financial hardship and even disaster forward. So the value of gold could also be one thing of a bellwether for the economic system, or at the least categorical the adverse sentiments of some traders. 

Gold value since 1915

Since 1915, the value of gold has been “up and to the best,” however not with out loads of ups and downs alongside the best way. However as the primary half of the chart above reveals, there weren’t many ups and downs between 1915 and 1971, as gold was convertible at a set fee into fiat forex.

For instance, from 1915 to the early Nineteen Thirties, gold was priced round $20 per ounce. Then within the mid-Nineteen Thirties, gold was priced at $35, which was successfully its reference value for 3 extra a long time.

The U.S. left the gold normal in April 1933, when newly elected President Franklin Roosevelt formally suspended the usual. Nonetheless, the institution of the Bretton Woods financial system within the Nineteen Forties introduced again a restricted type of the usual. As a part of that settlement, the U.S. greenback was arrange because the world’s reserve forex and nations settled their accounts in {dollars}. On the similar time, the U.S. agreed to transform {dollars} to gold at a set fee of $35.

In August 1971, President Nixon formally ended the convertibility of the greenback into gold, and gold started to commerce at market-determined costs. Following this occasion, the world’s main economies finally moved to fiat currencies that freely floated on worldwide exchanges.

Gold costs within the Seventies

The Nixon shock of August 1971 — together with ending the convertibility of the greenback into gold and instituting freezes on costs and wages — helped kick off what was a tumultuous decade for the economic system, however an excellent one for gold traders. Oil crises in 1973 and 1979 additionally helped put their very own financial strains on the U.S. It wasn’t lengthy after Nixon ended the greenback’s convertibility that gold costs started to growth. Costs zoomed into the excessive $40s by early 1972, then approached $70 by midyear — successfully doubling from only a yr prior. 

By late 1973, the U.S. was getting into a recession, and whereas the slowdown nominally lasted till early 1975, the stagflationary results — a interval of low development in output and excessive inflation — characterised the last decade. It appeared like a ripe local weather, then, for gold traders. Costs zoomed.

From round $70 in mid-1972, gold had climbed to north of $120 by Could 1973. Whereas it pulled again some towards the top of the yr, it roared greater in December 1973 after which shot forward to greater than $170 in February 1974. Amid the tough economic system of 1974, gold pulled again just a little bit, however by the top of the yr, it was threatening to hit $200. 

The feverish run led to 1975 because the U.S. economic system emerged from recession. Gold spent 1975 and most of 1976 in a downturn, trending decrease, aside from an uptick on the finish of 1976. Nonetheless, 1977 and 1978 noticed gold make a determined run greater, powering definitively by means of the $200 stage in late 1978. 

Additional financial stress such because the 1979 oil disaster helped roil traders, and gold skyrocketed. Beginning the yr at $233, the value of the dear metallic spent the yr melting up, pushing by means of $300 in July. By October, gold had climbed above $400, then $500 by November, finally hitting $600 by New 12 months’s Day 1980. 

From an official value of $35 in the beginning of the Seventies to greater than $600 as the last decade ended, gold had an outstanding decade. However the subsequent 20 years weren’t almost so sort to gold bulls.

Gold costs within the Nineteen Eighties-Nineties

The Nineteen Eighties and Nineties had been kind of a wash for gold traders who purchased to carry their funding. From begin to end, the value of gold was lower than half of what it had been, which means long-term, buy-and-hold traders noticed big losses. Worse, they missed out on the huge run in shares all through the Nineteen Eighties, and particularly, by means of many of the Nineties.

Whereas the Nineteen Eighties began out tough, with twin recessions that noticed the Fed elevate rates of interest into the double digits to choke off inflation, the economic system received again on observe on this decade. That led to a powerful bull market in shares, which was an enormous draw for traders and merchants. Though gold might have had just a few rallies within the decade — working from round $300 as much as $500 — they had been short-lived and upward momentum was capped, as shares supplied a excessive stage of returns.

The Nineties held in retailer extra of the identical, if not worse, for gold bulls. Gold by no means sustained a value of $400 for any size of time, and the rising economic system — powered by the burgeoning expertise of the web — promised untold riches in shares. Shares had been the place to be, and the value of gold spent the previous couple of years — the crucial years of the dot-com bubble — stagnant or falling.

Gold costs within the 2000s

After twenty years during which the value of gold was simply half of what it began the interval at, the 2000s kicked off a stretch of sharply rising gold costs. The early 2000s reeled from the hangover of the dot-com bubble, as billions of {dollars} merely evaporated from inventory costs and firms with no enterprise mannequin disappeared. Even the well-run corporations and those who had been destined for larger issues — equivalent to Amazon and Microsoft — noticed big hits to their shares. 

Because the U.S. emerged from the recession, traders turned their sights to shares and housing. Gold marched greater all through the last decade as effectively, particularly because the turbulence brought on by the bust of the housing bubble started to ripple out. Gold supplied the promise of security and a retailer of worth in powerful instances to traders haunted by two huge bubbles lower than a decade aside.

As the worldwide monetary disaster reached a few of its worst factors in late 2008 and 2009, gold went on to file new all-time highs. With the monetary system in tatters and lots of traders not sure whom or what to belief — the crimes of legendary conman Bernie Madoff had been revealed in late 2008 — gold appeared to supply a secure haven with file, however the 2010s proved a combined decade.

Gold costs from 2010-2025

After a powerful run within the 2000s, gold continued its momentum into the 2010s. Whereas the very worst of the financial carnage was previous, the economic system improved solely slowly. Whereas shares rose early within the decade, thanks partially to the Federal Reserve’s coverage of near-zero rates of interest, the true economic system — the one customers felt everyday — was sluggish to normalize. Dwelling costs had been nonetheless manner down from their peak of 5 or 6 years earlier than, however gold continued to soften up.

By late 2012, traders in gold had had a pleasant run of greater than a dozen years. Whereas gold had entered the yr 2000 at lower than $300 an oz., it entered 2010 at almost $1,100. Then it popped to greater than $1,800 in August 2011 earlier than pulling again, after which challenged these highs in 2012. That was the high-water mark for the metallic for the remainder of the last decade. Gold costs receded for years, and so they wouldn’t attain their earlier excessive till mid-2020. 

In early 2020, COVID-19 reared its head and commenced affecting worldwide economies. To battle its financial results, the U.S. authorities issued stimulus checks and the Federal Reserve moved rates of interest to near-zero in a single day, serving to preserve cash transferring by means of the monetary system. Consequently, asset costs zoomed greater in 2020 and 2021, together with the value of gold.

Gold traded between $1,750 and $2,000 for many of late 2020 by means of 2022. Whereas the Fed raised rates of interest to fight inflation at multi-decade highs, the value of shares plunged all through many of the yr, although gold didn’t appear to really feel a lot impact. Even when gold weakened later in 2022, dipping into the $1,600s, it quickly bounced greater and began 2023 at greater than $1,900 per ounce. Then it spent most of 2023 flirting with $2,000, earlier than lastly bursting by means of the extent late within the yr. This transfer arrange a powerful base to certain greater. 

Spiraling U.S. finances deficits helped catalyze gold additional. COVID-era spending ran excessive, and merchants turned to belongings which may act like inflation hedges, together with cryptocurrencies equivalent to Bitcoin and gold, each of which kicked off huge bull runs because the Fed hit the pause button of climbing rates of interest any additional. The extra possible subsequent route of rates of interest: down. 

Gold bulls had an outstanding run from the beginning of 2024. Gold entered the yr at simply over $2,000, and simply appeared to race greater, seemingly setting a brand new excessive month after month. By February 2025, gold had risen greater than 50 % from its value simply 14 months earlier than. However it continued to rally, setting new information on a regular basis and opening July 2025 at $3,372. 

Continued considerations over spiraling U.S. authorities debt and financial stresses might preserve gold topmost in merchants’ minds as they think about secure investments, particularly if the economic system weakens in 2025. 

Editorial Disclaimer: All traders are suggested to conduct their very own impartial analysis into funding methods earlier than investing determination. As well as, traders are suggested that previous funding product efficiency is not any assure of future value appreciation.