Annual Archive · XAU/USD · Historical Era
Gold Price in 1980
On 21 January 1980 gold reached its nominal all-time peak of $850/oz at the London PM fix — a level not seen again for 28 years. The Hunt brothers' silver corner collapsed in March, dragging gold lower. The price eventually retreated to ~$590 by year-end.
Open
$675.31
$21.71/g · $253.25/tola
Close
$589.80
$18.96/g · $221.18/tola
High
$873.00
$28.07/g · $327.38/tola
Low
$481.50
$15.48/g · $180.57/tola
1980 Gold Price Chart — Daily XAU/USD
XAU/USD only for 1980. Reliable historical exchange-rate data only extends back to 1 January 1990. For 1970–1989 we publish the verified international gold spot price (the global benchmark used by central banks and bullion dealers) but cannot accurately convert to PKR, INR, AED, SAR, GBP, EUR or other local currencies for these years. Year archives from 1990 onwards include full country-by-country price tables.
Major events affecting gold in 1980
Approximate price band
$481 – $850 (January peak) / troy oz
- Jan
Gold peaks at $850
Iran hostage crisis, Soviet–Afghan war, and 13.5% US inflation drive the all-time nominal high. Real (inflation-adjusted) high not surpassed until ~2008.
- Mar
Volcker shock
Fed funds rate raised aggressively; Hunt brothers' silver position liquidated. Gold falls sharply.
1980 Month-by-Month Gold Price
| Month | Open | Close | High | Low | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | $675.31 | $653.00 | $873.00 | $559.50 | -3.30% |
| February | $676.50 | $637.00 | $742.50 | $606.00 | -5.84% |
| March | $553.58 | $494.50 | $647.00 | $481.50 | -10.67% |
| April | $517.41 | $518.00 | $554.00 | $485.80 | +0.11% |
| May | $513.80 | $535.50 | $535.50 | $501.00 | +4.22% |
| June | $600.72 | $653.50 | $666.00 | $552.50 | +8.79% |
| July | $660.00 | $614.30 | $690.00 | $606.00 | -6.92% |
| August | $627.15 | $631.30 | $656.50 | $605.00 | +0.66% |
| September | $673.63 | $666.80 | $733.00 | $636.80 | -1.01% |
| October | $682.00 | $629.00 | $698.00 | $629.00 | -7.77% |
| November | $624.77 | $658.00 | $658.90 | $596.00 | +5.32% |
| December | $635.00 | $589.80 | $635.50 | $558.00 | -7.12% |
The 1970s — gold's break from fiat
On 15 August 1971 President Nixon ended USD convertibility to gold, dismantling the Bretton Woods system. Free-floating gold rose from a Bretton-Woods price of $35/oz to a January 1980 nominal peak near $850/oz. The decade was defined by stagflation, two oil shocks (1973–74 and 1979), Soviet–US tensions, and double-digit US inflation — an environment in which gold became the textbook inflation hedge.
Frequently asked questions
What was the gold price in 1980?
In 1980, gold opened at $675.31/oz and closed at $589.80/oz — a change of -12.66% on the year. Period high: $873.00/oz, period low: $481.50/oz.
Why are local-currency conversions not shown?
Reliable historical exchange-rate data only covers 1990 onwards. For 1970–1989 we display the international XAU/USD spot price (the global benchmark) but cannot accurately convert to PKR, INR, AED etc. without trustworthy historical FX data. Year archives from 1990 onward include full country-by-country tables.
What was the highest gold price in 1980?
The intraday high in 1980 reached approximately $873.00/oz on the international market.
What was the lowest gold price in 1980?
The annual low in 1980 reached approximately $481.50/oz.
What major events affected gold in 1980?
Key events affecting gold in 1980: Gold peaks at $850 (Jan), Volcker shock (Mar). See the events section above for the full impact analysis.
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Gold price in 1980: full archive overview
The 1980gold archive on Goldify Pro shows the international XAU/USD spot price across the entire year, with the same London-fix benchmark used by central banks, bullion dealers and major financial institutions. Daily data comes from gold-api.com's continuous historical record extending back to 1970.
In 1980, gold fell from $675.31/oz at the start of the year to $589.80/oz at year-end — a move of -12.66%. The intraday range spanned from $481.50/oz at the lowest to $873.00/oz at the highest. See the month-by-month table above for the precise progression.
Historical gold archives like this one are useful for inheritance and estate valuations involving gold assets purchased decades ago, academic research on monetary history, settling old commodity contracts, and understanding the impact of major historical events on real assets. We display data with no editorial markup or interpretation beyond converting per-ounce prices to per-gram and per-tola using the fixed 31.1035 g/oz and 11.664 g/tola conversions.
How to read this 1980 archive
Open / Close / High / Low in the stat grid are computed directly from the 313-point XAU/USD series shown in the chart above. “Open” is the first trading-day close of 1980, “Close” is the last, and High/Low are the absolute extremes for the year.
Per-gram and per-tola conversions under each stat use fixed weight constants — 31.1035 grams per troy ounce and 11.664 grams per tola (the South Asian standard). These figures do not include local taxes, dealer premiums or making charges; they reflect the pure spot content value of the metal.
The month-by-month tablebelow the chart breaks the year into 12 rows. “Change” is the percentage move between the first and last close of each month. Click any month name to drill into the daily archive for that 30-day window.
Pre-1990 limitation. Because trustworthy historical FX data only extends back to 1 January 1990, this page deliberately omits the country-by-country tables shown on 1990+ year archives. If you need a 1980 price expressed in PKR, INR, GBP or another currency, you would need to source contemporaneous central-bank exchange-rate data and multiply against the USD figure here.
Estate & inheritance valuations
Gold purchased in 1980 can be valued today using both the original 1980 cost basis (this page) and the live spot price. The capital-gain calculation is simply (today's per-gram price minus 1980's per-gram cost) × weight in grams.
Academic & monetary research
1980 sits inside a critical period for monetary history. Pair this archive with contemporary CPI, Fed funds rate, and crude-oil data to study how real assets responded to Volcker disinflation.
Backtesting & investment analysis
Use the daily series to backtest dollar-cost-averaging, buy-and-hold, or momentum strategies across the legacy era. The chart's 1-day granularity matches the resolution most retail strategies are evaluated at.
Education & teaching materials
1980 prices are commonly cited in finance, economics and history classrooms. Goldify Pro's archive gives a single canonical figure to reference — the international XAU/USD close — without commercial premiums or local-market noise.
Methodology & data sources
Source.Daily XAU/USD spot prices are pulled from gold-api.com's historical archive, which has continuous daily coverage from 1 January 1970 onward. Each data point represents the international gold spot price quoted in US dollars per troy ounce at the London PM benchmark window.
Aggregation. Year and month statistics (open, close, high, low, percentage change) are computed deterministically from the underlying daily series. We do not estimate or interpolate missing days; if a date returns no data it is simply skipped. The number of trading days for 1980 is shown in the chart header above.
Per-unit conversions. All per-gram and per-tola figures derive from the per-ounce price using fixed conversion factors: price/g = price/oz ÷ 31.1035 and price/tola = price/g × 11.664. We never compound rounding errors by going through intermediate units.
No FX for legacy era. Reliable historical exchange-rate data extends back only to 1990. Rather than estimate pre-1990 PKR/INR/AED prices using imprecise sources, we publish only the verified international USD figure for 1970–1989 archives.
Need country-specific prices? Year-by-year archives with PKR, INR, AED, GBP, EUR and 100+ other currencies are available for every year from 1990 onwards.
Looking at a longer trend? Our 50-year history chart and interactive historical analysis page plot the entire 1970-onwards record on a single zoomable canvas.
Need the live rate today? See today's gold price in 100+ countries or use our tola, gram and karat converters for live calculations.
Disclaimer: This page is for informational and historical-research purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Prices shown are international XAU/USD spot reference figures; actual physical-market prices in any country at the time may have varied due to local taxes, premiums and currency-conversion factors.