Gold Price

History of gold.

The Western Australian gold rush began with the discovery of gold in the back in the 1890's. News of this discovery spread very quickly and before you could blink people turned up in droves with the [rospect of finding the elusive gold. Small towns were set up in places such as Kalgoorlie, Goldfields and the Murchison regions.

Allot of the original buildings and towns still exist today and leave a memory of what it was like to live at the time of the boom.

Gold is still the most popular precious metal to invest in. People generally buy gold safe haven against any economic, political, social or currency-based crises. These crises include investment market declines, burgeoning national debt, currency failure, inflation, war, terrorist attacks and social unrest. Investors also buy gold early in a bull market and aim to sell it before a bear market begins, in an attempt to gain financially.

Gold has been used since it's existence as a form of monetory exchange and has seen several pricing systems used.After World War II, the Bretton Woods system pegged the United States dollar to gold at a rate of US$35 per troy ounce. The system existed until the 1971 Nixon Shock, when the US unilaterally suspended the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold.

Since 1919 the most common benchmark for the price of gold has been the London gold fixing, a twice-daily telephone meeting of representatives from five bullion-trading firms of the London bullion market. Furthermore, gold is traded continuously throughout the world based on the intra-day spot price, derived from over-the-counter gold-trading markets around the world. The following table sets forth the gold price versus various assets and key statistics:

In March 2008, the gold price exceeded US$1,000.

Investment in gold can be done directly through bullion or coin ownership, or indirectly through gold exchange-traded funds, certificates, accounts, spread betting, derivatives or shares.

....................................................................................................................................................................................................................