What Is The Highest Price Of Gold In History?
Gold has been used as currency for pretty much as long as civilizations have existed (more or less). Though the gold standard — where the standard economic unit (dollar for us here in the US) of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold — has been abandoned for quite a while now, many countries still hold large reserves of gold.
Just the fact that countries have abandoned using the gold standard does not mean that gold is valued any less. It may not be pegged to currency anymore, but it’s considered a safe haven investment.
2023 Update: Gold is once again nearing its all-time high. We’ll keep the article updated to reflect higher prices if gold breaks through its previous high set back in 2020. As of April 13th, 2023, the current price of gold of $2,043 is about $30 lower than the all-time high. Prices came close to setting a similar high in March of 2022, but ultimately fell just short before falling to lower levels.
Gold as a precious metal is still every bit as valuable as it has always been, with its prices being affected by factors such as decisions of central banks on interest rates and inflation, and even the exchange rate. Lower interest rates and a higher inflation both tend to make gold more expensive, and any weakness in the US dollar will also cause the gold price to rise. Obviously, the opposite is also true.
And since interest rates, inflation, and exchange rates are going through a constant flux, it makes sense that gold prices do, as well.
Gold Prices Throughout History
Take a look at the following graph: Inflation Adjusted Gold Prices
As the above graph illustrates, gold has been priced as low as $300s and as high as $2,808 USD per troy ounce — that is, adjusted for inflation in 2019.
If you’re curious about what happened in 1980, it had a lot to do with international tensions and poor economic conditions. Strong oil prices, Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, and the impact of the Iranian revolution all factored into investors’ move into gold, making its price shoot up to $850 USD per troy ounce (nominal USD).
Gold prices also hit an all-time low of $251.70 USD in August 1999, which happened due to concerns about central banks reducing gold bullion reserves and mining companies selling gold in forward markets to protect against prices that had been falling over the past few years. It’s also at the end of an economic expansion cycle where investors’ appetite for risk increased, leaving fewer assets in safe haven investments.
But you’ll notice from the graph that post-2000, the price of gold has started back on an upwards trend. The price of gold has stayed well above the $1,000 line since around 2009.
Let’s take a closer look:
While the price of gold dipped between mid-2013 to mid-2019 (after hitting all-time highs in 2011) — with the lowest being $1,066.80 USD per troy ounce in 2016 — it has generally managed to stay above the $1,100.
In 2020, we have been seeing a significant upswing in the price of gold. The highest price of gold in history was $2,032.16 USD per troy ounce, achieved on the 7th of August, 2020. Compared to the price of gold over the last decade, 2020 has generally proven to be a great year for gold.
Selling Gold
With prices reaching this all-time high, now may be a great opportunity to sell broken, used, and unloved gold that is collecting dust. Whether it’s 10K gold (often found in jewelry) or 24K gold (typically coins and bullion meant for investment) or anything in between, Express Gold Cash buys it all.
And we aren’t stingy either. Whereas many other gold buyers pay as little as 25% of the value of your gold, Express Gold Cash pays up to 90% of the value of gold bullion and up to 85% of the refined value of gold jewelry. In fact, you can always check what we pay so you can estimate the payout you’ll receive for your gold before even sending us the gold.
By selling now, you can take advantage of the high price of gold. Request a kit now to get started!
