Coin Show - Gold Charts

Through the coin show years, gold bullion prices have seen lows in the $250s. In 2011, the high and low points ranged from a low of $1319 early in the year to the high of $1895 in September.

Now, the market sees high $1600s and low $1700s on a relatively regular basis.

Gold's price has dramatically changed through the years, especially in 2011. But, let's not forget inflation happened through the years. Even with inflation, gold's increase is still significant.

Back when the Greater Atlanta Coin Show started in 1988, gold's price was $441.70 per troy ounce. Through the years, gold bullion prices climbed and fell, falling in 1993 to a low point of $326.10 per ounce. Climbing again, gold's values trended upward for a handful of years but fell to a new low in 1999 of $252.80.

In 2011, gold's prices reached new record highs.

The charts below have been updated to include through Friday, April 13, 2012.

This chart shows the gold prices from the London PM Fix numbers on the Friday just prior to each coin show through all the coin show years, 1988-to-date.

As noted, inflation through the years should be considered as well. Let's look at this same chart adjusted using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Inflation Calculator.

For an easier view, the next picture shows the comparison of the gold prices in original values (blue, lower line) and in current dollars (upper, red line) on the same chart: 

With today's values for gold, the prices between early 1988 and 2011 still show a remarkable increase. With the recent fluctuations, gold's value almost, but not quite, doubles the inflated 1988 price.

The next chart shows the high and low prices during each of the coin show years. Look how near the lines are in the early years and how they've moved apart in the recent years.

The high (red line) and low (blue line) gold prices for each of the years through 2010 provide interesting insights as well. These values are in original dollars. The 2011 high and low numbers illustrate a dramatic change from the 2010 values. Gold's 2011 low point is not far below its 2010 high value

During the coin show years, gold dropped to its low point in the $250s in 1999. It took several more years before gold climbed back over $400 per troy ounce in 2003.

Between 2003 and 2007, gold doubled in price to achieve a high of $841.10 that year.

In 2008, gold topped $1000, and just one short year later, the gold bullion went over $1200 per ounce.

In 2010, gold achieved a high of $1421 per ounce.

The 2011 gold markets rode up and down like riding a carnival ride or, perhaps more apropos, whitewater rafting. 

Take a look at this chart of the gold prices for April 2011 through April 2012. (Note: these values reflect the prices on the Friday just prior to the monthly coin shows and do not include the London PM Fix high values that gold achieved on other dates.)

Gold increased roughly $600 in the past year, but those increases dropped during the latter part of the year. The difference from April to April in the gold values before the coin show calculated to $197 - roughly an increase of 13%. 

As we've seen, the domestic and global economic and political news impacts the metals and their values. Where will the gold prices go next as we continue this politically intense new year?

The numbers for the gold prices in the charts above were pulled from Kitco's historical gold data using London Fix values. Their site provides much more detail of the daily values through these years rather than just the days before coin shows and the singular high and low points as shown in the above charts. Click on historical gold information to review Kitco's much more detailed data and charts.