A chronology of gold from the year 1717 to date.
| 1717 | In UK Sir Isaac Newton (Master of the Mint) gives guinea statutory valuation of 21sh (shillings). Mint price of gold 77sh 10½d per standard ounce. UK Gold Standard commences. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1797 | Napoleonic Wars. Bank of England suspends gold payments. | |
| 1816 | UK Coinage Act (Post-Napoleonic Wars). Sovereign the standard unit @ one standard ounce of gold (>11/12 fine) = 77sh 10½d. | |
| 1844 | Bank of England obliged to buy gold @ 77sh 9d. | |
| 1870-1900 | All major countries, other than China, switch to the gold standard, linking their currencies to gold. Bimetallism is abandoned. | |
| 1913 | Federal Reserve Act establishes US system of reserve banks. At least 40% of note issue to be backed by gold. | |
| 1917 | 1 September | US prohibits gold exports. |
| 1919 | 1 April | UK prohibits gold exports without official permission. UK now off Gold Standard. |
| June | US gold exports permitted again. | |
| 12 September | London Gold Fixing established. | |
| 1925 | 28 April | UK returns to Gold Standard at pre-War parity of $4.86=£1 |
| May | UK Gold Standard Act. Currency convertible @ 77sh 10½d per standard ounce. But only in amounts of 400 oz. Export of gold again permitted. | |
| 1931 | September | UK abandons Gold Standard. |
| 1933 | 20 April | US convertibility suspended (with gold @ $20.67/oz). Export, all transactions and holding of gold forbidden. |
| 1934 | 31 January | Presidential Proclamation makes dollar again convertible to gold (at new price of $35/oz) |
| 1936 | September | Tripartite Agreement. US, UK and France willing to buy and sell gold freely with each other in exchange for own currency. |
| 1939 | 3 September | London gold market closed on outbreak of war. |
| 1944 | July | Bretton Woods Conference sets basis of post-war monetary system. US dollar to maintain $35=1 oz gold conversion rate. Other currencies to be fixed (but adjustable) in terms of US dollar, thus forming a Gold Exchange Standard. |
| 1945 | 27 December | IMF Articles of Agreement effective. Par values established for all members based on gold value of US dollar on 1 July 1944 (0.888671 grammes of fine gold). |
| 1954 | 22 March | London gold market re-opens after World War 2. |
| 1961 | 1 November | Gold Pool established (members Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK and Federal Reserve Bank of New York: France withdrew in June 1967). Members would sell (and later buy) gold in the London market to maintain prices close to par in that market. |
| 1967 | 18 November | Sterling devalued from $2.80 to $2.40. This leads to pressure on the dollar and hence to substantial buying of gold. |
| 1968 | 15 March | London market closed at request of US government. |
| 17 March | Gold Pool abolished and 2-tier market created. Central banks transact only among themselves at official price and neither buy nor sell from London or any other market. Private sector, however, free to do what it likes, with floating gold price. London market re-opens 1 April and now fixing in US$ for first time. | |
| 31 May | First amendment to IMF articles agreed. A new reserve asset, the Special Drawing Right (SDR) was created and given the value of 0.888571 gram of fine gold, the same value as the US dollar in July 1944. | |
| 1971 | 15 August | US$ convertibility to gold suspended. |
| 18 December | Smithsonian Agreement on new exchange rates. | |
| 1972 | 8 May | US$ devalues to $38/fine oz. |
| 1973 | 12 February | US proposes further devaluation to $42.22/fine oz. |
| 2-18 March | Major central banks suspend dealing in foreign exchange markets. | |
| 19 March | Most major countries adopt floating exchange rate regime. | |
| 18 October | US devaluation effective. | |
| 13 November | 2-tier gold market formally abandoned. | |
| 1975 | 1 January | US abolishes restrictions on citizens buying, selling or owning gold (formerly needed Treasury licence). |
| January | First US gold auction (2 million oz auctioned; less than half bid for). | |
| 30 June | Second US gold auction (½ million oz). | |
| 31 August | Group of 10 major industrial countries and Switzerland agree that there would be no attempt to peg price of gold and that total stock held by the IMF and the monetary authorities of the G10 countries would not be increased. IMF’s Interim Committee agrees to disposal of 50 mn oz (one third) of Fund’s gold. 25 mn oz to be sold and surplus devoted to a Trust Fund which would extend concessional loans to low-income members and the other 25 mn oz to be restituted to members at the official price. | |
| 1976 | 2 June | First IMF gold auction. |
| 1978 | 1 April | 2nd Amendment to IMF Articles of Agreement comes into effect. Gold’s formal role in international monetary system disappears. |
| 23 May | US gold auctions resume. | |
| 1979 | 13 March | European Monetary System established. Those participating in its exchange rate arrangements must - and other members can - swap 20% of gold and US$ reserves on rolling quarterly basis with European Monetary Cooperation Fund for ECU |
| November | Final US gold auction. During the two phases (1975; 1978/79) some 530 tonnes (17 mn oz) were sold. | |
| 1980 | 7 May | Last of 45 IMF gold auctions. 25 mn oz (= 778 tonnes) were sold in all at average price of $240 (lowest/highest prices $109/$712). |
| 1982 | March | US Gold Commission reports to Congress. Official holdings of 264 mn oz should certainly not be reduced to zero and a minority favoured no reduction at all. |
| 1985 | 22 September | Plaza Agreement on currencies. |
| 1987 | 21/22 February | Louvre Accord on currencies. |
| 1992 | 7 February | Treaty on European Union signed at Maastricht. This includes agreement for qualifying countries to proceed to Economic and Monetary Union (EMU - the single currency) on a default date of January 1999. Provision is made for the mutation of national central banks into the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) headed by the European Central Bank (ECB). The ECB will be able to call an initial amount of Ecu50bn (Euro 50bn) of gold and foreign reserve assets from participating countries. Reserve management of all ECSB banks, including that of gold holdings, will be subject to guidelines to be issued by the ECB council. (See European Monetary Union and gold) |
| 1998 | 1-2 May | Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain confirmed as participants in EMU, scheduled to start in January 1999. |
| 1998 | 7 July | The Governing Council of the European Central Bank decides that 15% of its initial reserves of 39.5bn Euro, due to be transferred to it on the first day of 1999, will consist of gold. The Council also agrees that before the end of the year it will adopt an ECB guideline which will subject all operations in foreign reserve assets remaining with the national central banks, including gold, to approval by the ECB. |
| 1998 | 31 December | The swaps of 20% of their gold and US$ reserves deposited with the European Monetary Institute (formerly the European Monetary Cooperation Fund) by EU national central banks in return for Ecu are unwound. |
| 1999 | 1 January | European Monetary Union starts. The eleven founding members transfer a total of 39.6bn euro of gold and foreign exchange reserves to the European Central Bank. 15% of this is gold. |
| 1999 | 26 September | Central Bank Gold Agreement (CBGA) announced. Under this 15 European central banks (the European Central Bank, the eleven members of European Monetary Union, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) declare that gold will remain an important element of global monetary reserves, that they will collectively cap their gold sales at around 400 tonnes per year over the next five years and that they will not expand their gold leasings and their use of gold futures and options over this period. See the section on Central bank agreements on Gold for more details. |
| 2004 | 8 March | Second Central Bank Gold Agreement announced. The CBGA was renewed for a further five years from September 27 2004 to September 26 1999 with an annual limit to sales of 500 tonnes. See Central bank agreements on Gold for further details and its differences from the first Agreement. |