THE SHORT ANSWER
Choose a month to retrieve its licensed average gold price
GoldObserve can now support a historical gold price lookup because the source and reuse boundary are explicit: 799 World Bank monthly average observations, licensed CC BY 4.0, preserved locally from 1960-01. For example, 1980-01 averaged $675.00 per troy ounce. That number is a monthly nominal benchmark—not the exact price on every day in January 1980.
$35.00 monthly average.
$4,073.00 monthly average.
Validated local data points.
Attribution and source link retained.
HISTORICAL PRICE TOOL
Look up a month and inspect the surrounding five-year path
Select any available month. The chart ends at the chosen observation and keeps five years of prior context where available. Hover, touch or use arrow keys to inspect an actual stored month.
Source: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), nominal USD monthly average per troy ounce, CC BY 4.0. Normal page loads use GoldObserve's local archive and do not fetch the workbook.
PRICE DEFINITIONS
The word “price” is incomplete until time, market and statistic are named
HOW TO CITE A RESULT
Keep four fields attached to every historical number
- 01Observation month
Use YYYY-MM so the time basis is unambiguous.
- 02Statistic
Say “monthly average,” not simply “gold was.”
- 03Unit
Nominal U.S. dollars per troy ounce.
- 04Source and license
World Bank Pink Sheet, CC BY 4.0, with access boundary shown.
Source and calculation detailsWorld Bank monthly history · CC BY 4.0
SOURCE, LICENSE & DATA BOUNDARY
Monthly results use one consistent World Bank series
GoldObserve uses the World Bank Commodity Price Data (Pink Sheet), licensed CC BY 4.0. The archive contains 799 monthly nominal USD gold averages from 1960-01 through 2026-07. The workbook was updated 2026-08-04, retrieved 2026-08-07, and stored with SHA-256 7902a77505ebdc5d202ce65f666c2ee1b04b626f042d7738ed3e6f7d112c8433.
A monthly average is not a daily close. GoldObserve does not splice in a current quote, interpolate missing months or fabricate daily history.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Questions about historical gold prices by date
Can I look up the gold price on an exact day?
Not with this dataset. The tool returns a World Bank calendar-month average. It does not claim to be a daily close, London fixing, intraday quote or executable dealer price.
How far back does this historical gold price data go?
The local licensed series begins 1960-01 and currently ends 2026-07. The visible latest month is the source boundary, not a hidden stale-data fallback.
Why can a monthly average differ from a price I saw for the same month?
An average combines observations across the month. A daily close, intraday high, LBMA auction price, futures settlement or retail quote uses a different time and market definition.
Are historical gold prices adjusted for inflation?
No. This lookup reports nominal U.S. dollars per troy ounce. Use the linked inflation-adjusted history for a U.S. consumer-purchasing-power comparison.
Does GoldObserve fetch the World Bank file whenever I choose a date?
No. The page reads a verified local archive. The upstream workbook is used only by the maintenance workflow.