WHY GOLD MOVED Gold …

Gold price history

Gold price in 1974

Gold averaged $159 an ounce in 1974. That was +63.6% on 1973.

1974 average$159
Highest month$184Dec
Lowest month$129Jan

Gold today: …

What happened in 1974

Private Americans were allowed to own gold bullion again from 31 December 1974.

Month by month in 1974

MonthAverage price
January$129
February$150
March$168
April$172
May$163
June$154
July$143
August$155
September$152
October$159
November$182
December$184

1974 on the long-run chart

$50$100$250$500$1,000$2,000$4,000197019801990200020102020

The large dot is 1974. Yearly averages, log scale.

Yearly and monthly figures are averages of daily prices, in US dollars per troy ounce. Source: World Bank Commodity Markets (Pink Sheet), CC BY 4.0, via the open gold-prices dataset. Daily highs and lows were higher and lower than the monthly averages. Latest month in the data: September 2026.

Questions people ask

What was the price of gold in 1974?

Gold averaged about $159 an ounce in 1974. The highest month was December ($184) and the lowest was January ($129).

How much is gold now compared with 1974?

See the live figure at the top of this page. It compares today's price with the 1974 average of $159. Past prices don't tell you what gold will do next.

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