The price of gold per ounce changes every minute of the day. This was not always true, for a long time the price of gold per ounce was $20.67 per ounce. In 1934, the dollar was devalued, and the price of gold per ounce $35.00. By 1961 it was becoming hard to maintain a $35.00 price of gold per ounce, so a pool of American and European banks decided to manipulate the price of gold per ounce to prevent further currency devaluation. The price of gold per ounce refers to Troy ounces, which is 31.1g. Around 1970, the price of gold per ounce began to trend upwards, and has varied wildly since then. In early 1980, the price of gold per ounce hit a then record high of $850 per ounce.
The price of gold per ounce then hit a low of $252.90 per ounce in June of 1999. The price of gold per ounce stayed low until 2001, when the price of gold per ounce started to skyrocket. In January 2008, the price of gold per ounce hit a new record at $865.35 per troy ounce. A further record was set just 2 months later, when the price of gold per ounce made it to $1023.50 per ounce.
In late 2009, the price of gold per ounce saw another new surge, as the economy worsened and the US dollar weakened. In December 2009 price of gold per ounce saw another record number, this time at $1217.23. The price of gold per ounce continued to go up in May 2010 due to the European Debt Crisis, even though the price of gold per ounce was at a record high, people there still thought of it as a safe asset.
In March 2011, the price of gold per ounce again hit a record high, this time of $1432.57. This time, the rise of the price of gold per ounce was based on investors’ concerns regarding unrest in both North Africa and the Middle East. On August 23, 2011, gold hit its all time highest price of gold per ounce at $1913.50 per troy ounce. Since then, the price of gold per ounce has dropped steadily. In March of 2013 the price of gold per ounce took a major hit, and went down over $250 dollars in the matter of a few weeks. Today, the price of gold per ounce is in the mid to high $1300’s.