Gold prices
History of gold prices
The history of gold prices within the UK has a long and illustrious history. In fact many would not know that you can even venture as far back as the time of the Normans in the thirteenth century to find official records.
It seems that for as long as the Human race has known about gold, its prices have also been well documented and protected through the annals of time. While we could go into the history of gold prices through the last century it is the price of more recent times that is of most interest, this being said we will endeavour to advise the full British history of gold prices.
From the initial opening records in 1257 the price of gold started out at the equivalent of 89 pence per ounce (34 grams) in today’s prices. This price rose to £1.07 where it stayed for almost a hundred years.
In 1346 the price increased to £1.24 and steadily increased to £2 by the mid fourteen hundreds. By the mid fifteen hundreds the price hit £3 and another hundred years passed before the £4 barrier was achieved.
In 1663 when the price of gold achieved £4 per ounce it stagnated and varied around the £4.20 to £4.50 mark for nearly two hundred years until achieving a price of over £5 per ounce in 1811. This figure was short lived however as the price of gold hit a high of £5.76 per ounce in 1813 before reducing back to the £4.20 to £4.50 mark in 1815 where it stayed until 1932 (bar a short increase between 1920 and 1921 during the great depression.
In 1932 the price of gold increased to £5.90 per ounce and slowly increased through the war years to a high of £8.40 in 1849, it was here that the history of gold prices changes dramatically.
1950 saw a massive jump in gold prices as they rose from £5.90 per ounce to £34.71 in less than twelve months. The price then steadily increased from 1950 through to the early 1970’s where the price jumped in 1973 from £58.16 to £97.32 per ounce.
This point in the 1970’s is pivotal in the history of gold prices as it saw a new era where the price exploded over the next few years.
1974 saw the price of gold break the £100 barrier as the price jumped to £159.26 where it wavered around this price until 1979 before doubling to £306.68, and again doubling in 1980 t0 £612.56. 1981 then saw the price slowly drop down from these huge heights until the gold prices hit a low in 2001 of 271.04.
2002 onwards has seen price resurgence, a price increase that takes this illustrious history of gold prices and turns it on its head in a matter of years. 2002 saw the price jump to £309.68, by 2006 this had doubled to £603.77 and another four years saw the price double yet again to an astonishing £1224.53.
Early History of Gold Prices
The gold prices may seem trivial in today’s prices but the price during the early centuries was alot of money in those times of old, this being said the price did stay quite constant throughout the centuries growing slowly as it went. It has only really been the past 60 years where gold prices have increased dramatically.
Between 1257 and 1949 gold prices increased by 943% but the price has increased by a colossal 35279% between 1950 and 2010, of which just less than four hundred percent has been in the past eight years alone.
This massive increase in gold prices over the past few years and decades has proved that gold as a commodity is great to invest in and offers high rewards to those who have time and patience in the market.
While the value of money has changed during the same time period, the numbers speak for themselves when you read how gold prices have increased by a few thousand percent in a matter of sixty years.
You will see that the history of gold hit a huge turning point post World War Two. It has only been in recent times however that many have seen the importance in gold as a business venture as seen by the recent influx of cash for gold businesses springing up across the UK. This is why gold prices are becoming increasingly more important.