50-Year Gold Price History (With Comprehensive Charts)

Below are historical gold prices expressed in U.S. dollars per troy ounce.

You can always find updated real-time gold prices and an interactive price chart on our gold spot price page.

3-Year Gold Price Chart

3 Year Gold Prices

The major drivers of the gold market over the last three years was Fed interest rate policy between 2018 and 2019, and the global COVID pandemic in 2020.

Global lockdowns, crushed economies, and unemployment at 80-year highs sent gold prices to new records in 2020. Spot gold hit nine all-time records over ten sessions (July 24 to August 6), going from $1,886 to $2,063 an ounce.

5-Year Gold Price Chart

5 Year Gold Prices

The 5-year chart catches the tail-end of the 2012-2015 correction in gold prices that followed the 2009-2011 bull market. It extends the timeline to show the most recent low in gold prices, which occurred in November 2015 when gold closed at $1,057. The yellow metal then traded in a range between $1,300 and $1,400 for the next three years.

10-Year Gold Price Chart

10 Year Gold Prices

The 10-yr chart begins right before the 2011 peak of gold's big rally in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. The chart then follows the price correction from 2012 through 2015, the range-bound action from 2016 to 2019, then the rally to new record highs in 2020.

20-Year Gold Price Chart

20 Year Gold Prices

The 20-year gold price chart gives a complete picture of the current secular bull market, which has so far run from $260 to $2,060 an ounce.

Gold began climbing in 2003 after the US invasion of Iraq. The 2008 Global Financial Crisis initially saw gold prices drop with other assets, but then rally to a record $1,895 close in 2011. Gold fell into a multi-year bear market before driven to new record highs in 2020 by the COVID epidemic.

30-Year Gold Price Chart

30 Year Gold Prices

The 30-year gold price chart extends the timeline to show the long range-bound price for gold from 1990 to when prices began to rise after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The chart illustrates how gold remained at or under $500 an ounce for 15 years, before serial global economic crises sent prices permanently above $1,000.

50-Year Gold Price Chart

50 Year Gold Prices

The 50-year gold price chart reflects the entire history of the modern US gold market. (It wasn't until 1974 that Americans were once again allowed to own gold.) This marks the birth of the modern US investment gold market.

This long view puts the other charts into perspective. The spike in gold prices in 1980 was caused by the Iran Hostage Crisis. Gold hit a record price of $850 in January 1980. It would not reach this level again until January 2008.

Interested in more information on current and historical precious metal prices? Check out the links below:

100-Year Silver Price History: Charts and Complete Overview

Current Spot Silver Prices Today

Current Spot Platinum Prices Today

Current Spot Palladium Prices Today

Gold Price: 10-Year Chart