The Ledger: 100 Years of Gold, Updated August 2026
Gold price history chart, 100 years of data, from the gold standard to today.
A gold price history chart spanning the last 100 years, sourced and updated so you can see, in plain numbers, how gold has performed since the U.S. left the gold standard in 1971.
Gold spent 45 years pegged near $35 an ounce. Then it didn’t.
From 1926 to 1971, the U.S. kept the dollar convertible to gold at a fixed rate, and gold’s price barely moved. In August 1971, President Nixon ended that convertibility. Gold has traded as a floating, market-priced asset ever since.
That doesn’t mean it’s been a straight line up. Gold fell for two decades after its 1980 spike before the current run began. Worth knowing before you look at the chart below.
Gold Price Per Ounce · 1926 to 2026
+21,114%Since 1926 ($20.63 → $4,376.51)
+10,674%Since 1971 ($40.62 → $4,376.51)
$4,376.51Spot price as of this writing
Yearly figures from 1926 to 2025: National Mining Association, “Historical Gold Prices, 1833 to Present” (World Gold Council / Timothy Green compilation through 1994, London PM Fix 1995 to 2022, LBMA 2023 on); 2025 annual average per the World Gold Council. Current spot price is the live figure shown elsewhere on this site. Percent changes are calculated from these sourced figures.
$20.63
1926 average (gold standard era)
$40.62
1971 average, the year the gold window closed
$615.00
1980 average, inflation-era spike (intraday high near $850)
$279.11
2000 average, the modern-era low point
$2,394.86
2024 average
$3,431.00
2025 average, most recent full year on record (up 43% over 2024)
Gold’s 2025 average of $3,431 an ounce ran 43% above 2024, its strongest annual gain in more than four decades. Every dollar of gold bought at the 1971 peg is worth roughly 108 times as much today, in nominal dollars.
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Sources: National Mining Association, Historical Gold Prices 1833 to Present (yearly figures, 1926 to 2024); World Gold Council, Gold Demand Trends Full Year 2025 (2025 annual average). Current spot price is the live figure shown elsewhere on blog.swissamerica.com. Figures are point-in-time and change frequently. This page is updated periodically, not in real time. Not investment, tax, or legal advice.
