Gold Price History

The following is a deep dive into past Gold Price History.

Most website visitors here on Gold-Eagle.com are from the USA and for that reason, we will begin with a gold price chart covering more than the last 700 years.

Leading into the US dollar price of gold since the 1776 founding of the United States of America (USA) through the post-1971 fully fiat Federal Reserve note era to today headed into 2020.

In our nation’s historically brief +240 year history, the price of gold has swung from as low as $20.67 oz to a high close to $2,000 oz in the late summer of 2011.

Here is this same chart with some historic eras annotated so the viewer can follow along with gold price history here in the USA.

From the year 1776 to our present day, the majority of our non-war US history, the price of gold was steady at $20.67 per oz USD beginning with the Bimetallic Standard then to the Gold Standard and 1873 demonetization of silver.

The chart does not fully reflect that during our nation's first major gold price mania, the gold price peaked to $160 oz in late 1869.

This was following the US Civil War and much in part due to the public's general mistrust of fiat Greenback currency issued at the time. 

Since the industrial revolution of the mid-1800s and into the 20th Century, due to ingenuity and other contributing factors. 

Both world physical gold production and the global population of human beings began exponentially rising in comparison to the prior 350-400 years of time.

Given that gold is next to molecularly impossible to destroy and preciously expensive. Gold hardly ever wasted or lost without being recycled. 

Not how the total ounces of physical gold per person data in the chart below, we can see that gold production of the world has outpaced total human beings living from the beginning of the last century into this 21st Century.

The following video can also give viewers and readers a better understanding of the size and scale of the world's biggest gold miners beginning in 1900 and moving into the 2020s.

When the video's data begins, the USA was the world's leading gold produced in 1900 yielding just over 100 tons to start that century.

During the late 1960s, the government partnered central banks were buying as much physical gold bullion as they are again today. Then it was the nation of South Africa, which has currently still mined over 1/4th of all the physical gold the world currently has, was yielding close to 1,000 tonnes of gold per year out of gold mines. Some of South Africa's gold mines dive over 2 miles in depth below the surface.

Headed into the 2020s, China regularly leads the world in gold mining output with over 400 tonnes annually produced typically per year.

Indeed as we head into the 2020s, both China Gold Demand and Russia Gold Demand are now at historic levels as they respectively work and even perhaps coordinate to de-US dollarize their 21st Century futures.

Most US citizens reading this will be unaware that following World War 2 the United States enjoyed having Official Gold Reserves of over 20,000 tonnes. 

This is mainly why the prior version of the now fiat Federal Reserve note was used to anchor the global monetary system under the Bretton Woods agreement.

Surprisingly the exact Federal Reserve governor who oversaw some 12,000 tonnes leave the USA (virtually the entire size of the 1933 gold nationalization hoard) for our foreign creditor's vaults during the London Gold Pool era. 

One of the last honest central bankers, Mr. John Exter left us lots of wisdom we often use to educate gold buyers with today.

To learn more about Gold Price History, please visit us at SD Bullion.

James Anderson

A bullion buyer years before the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, James Anderson is a grounded precious metals researcher, content creator, and physical investment grade bullion professional. He has authored several Gold & Silver Guides and has been featured on the History Channel, Zero Hedge, Gold-Eagle, Silver Seek, Value Walk and many more. You can pick up James' most recent, comprehensive and free 200+ page ebook at SD Bullion.

Given that repressed commodity, values are now near 100-year low-level valuations versus large US stocks, James remains convinced investors and savers should buy and maintain a prudent physical bullion position now before more unfunded promises debase away in the coming decades.