Gold Price History (Last 100 Years)

Historical Events in This Period

January 1st, 1933: New Deal (FDR)

• Price Prior: $20.67  (December 1st, 1932)

• Price After: $26.47 (January 1st, 1933)

• Impact on Price: 27% (Month over Month)

The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939.

January 30, 1934: Gold Reserve Act

• Price Prior: $26.47  (December 1st, 1933)

• Price After: $35.00 (January 1st, 1934)

• Impact on Price: 24% (Month over Month)

The United States Gold Reserve Act of January 30, 1934 required that all gold and gold certificates held by the Federal Reserve be surrendered and vested in the sole title of the United States Department of the Treasury. It also prohibited the Treasury and financial institutions from redeeming dollars for gold, established the Exchange Stabilization Fund under control of the Treasury to control the dollar’s value without the assistance (or approval) of the Federal Reserve, and authorized the president to establish the gold value of the dollar by proclamation. 

July 22, 1944: Bretton Woods Agreement Signed

• Price Prior: $34.06  (July 1st, 1944)

• Price After: $35.00 (2.7% Increase) (January 1st, 1945)

The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the United States, Canada, Western European countries, Australia, and Japan after the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement. The Bretton Woods system was the first example of a fully negotiated monetary order intended to govern monetary relations among independent states. The Bretton Woods system required countries to guarantee convertibility of their currencies into U.S. dollars to within 1% of fixed parity rates, with the dollar convertible to gold bullion for foreign governments and central banks at US$35 per troy ounce of fine gold (or 0.88867 gram fine gold per dollar).

July 23, 1965: Coinage Act of 1965

• Price Prior: $35.31  (July 1st, 1965)

• Price After: $35.31 (0% Change) (August 1st, 1965)

Enacted July 23, 1965, eliminated silver from the circulating United States dime (ten-cent piece) and quarter dollar coins. It also reduced the silver content of the half dollar from 90 percent to 40 percent; silver in the half dollar was subsequently eliminated by a 1970 law. 

August 15, 1971: Bretton Woods Agreement Ends

• Price Prior: $42.71  (August 1st, 1971)

• Price 1 Month After: $42.03 (24% Increase) (September 1st, 1971)

• Price 1 Year After: $67.03 (57% Increase) (August 1st, 1972)

• Price 5 Years After: $109.78 (157% Increase) (August 1st, 1976)

On August 15, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon announced his New Economic Policy, a program “to create a new prosperity without war.” Known colloquially as the “Nixon shock,” the initiative marked the beginning of the end for the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates established at the end of World War II.

June 01, 1981: Volker Raises Interest Rates

• Price Prior: $459.35  (June 1st, 1981)

• Price 1 Month After: $408.61 (12% Decrease) (July 1st, 1981)

• Price 1 Year After: $314.79 (31% Decrease) (June 1st, 1982)

• Price 5 Years After: $342.65 (25% Decrease) (June 1st, 1986)

Paul Volker raised interest rates dramatically peaking at 21.5%.

October 19, 1987: Black Monday

• Price Prior: $465.69  (October 1st, 1987)

• Price 1 Month After: $468.01 (0.5%Increase) (September 1st, 1987)

• Price 1 Year After: $407.14 (13% Decrease) (October 1st, 1988)

• Price 5 Years After: $344.17 (18% Decrease) (October 1st, 1992)

The first contemporary global financial crisis unfolded on October 19, 1987, a day known as “Black Monday,” when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 22.6 percent. 

March 2000: Dot-Com Bubble Peak

• Price Prior: $286.39  (March 1st, 2000)

• Price 1 Month After: $279.69 (2.4% Decrease) (April 1st, 2000)

• Price 6 Months After: $273.68 (0.3% Decrease) (September 1st, 2000)

Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Composite stock market index rose 400%, only to fall 78% from its peak by October 2002, giving up all its gains during the bubble.

September 11th, 2001: September 11th Attacks

• Price Prior: $283.42  (September 1st, 2001)

• Price After: $283.06 (0.1% Decrease) (October 1st, 2001)

• Price 1 Year After: $319.14 (13% Increase) (September 1st, 2002)

• Price 5 Years After: $598.06 (111% Increase) (September 1st, 2006)

A series of four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by the militant Islamic extremist network al-Qaeda.

January 2008: Start of the 2008 Financial Crisis

• Price Prior: $803.2  (December 1st, 2007)

• Price After: $889.6 (10% Increase) (January 1st, 2008)

• Price 1 Year After: $919.5 (3% Increase) (January 1st, 2009)

• Price 5 Years After: $1664.75 (87% Increase) (January 1st, 2013)

• Price 5 Years After: $1343.35 (51% Increase) (January 1st, 2018)

The financial crisis of 2008, or Global Financial Crisis, was a severe worldwide economic crisis that occurred in the early 21st century.

January 19th, 2020: CDC Confirms First US Coronavirus Case

• Price Prior: $1580.85  (January 1st, 2020)

• Price After: $1626.35 (3% Increase) (Februrary 1st, 2020)

• Price 1 Year After: $1849.7 (17% Increase) (January 1st, 2021)

 A Washington state resident becomes the first person in the United States with a confirmed case of the 2019 novel coronavirus, having returned from Wuhan on January 15, thanks to overnight polymerase chain reaction testing.