It was fixed at $35 for many years, after Roosevelt flipped it from $20.67 in 1933. I don’t believe you could dig an ounce of gold out of the ground for $35 even back then. I first started buying silver (ignoring pulling as-found silver coins out of circ in 1965) it was $3-4-5 in 2000, 2001 or so. It struck me that such a price was well below the cost of production. As I’ve said, it was like buying a slice of balogna for a penny. You could not raise the cow, feed and care for the cow, slaughter the cow, package the beef, then bring it to market for 1 cent. I had people pounding the table at me to buy $275. gold under the same distorted market conditions, and didn’t act.
That’s why, when people say gold rose 56,227% over the last hundred years and is ready to do so again, they’re talking crazy talk. It was the result of government edict.
Thanks for the info; interesting.