Gold and silver
An ounce of gold went from £201.71 at the start of 1991 to £3,048.89 on 7 November 2026, about 15.1 times as many pounds. Silver went from £2.15 to £38.99, about 18.1 times.
The pound's buying power
Same ounce.
Different number of pounds.
A pound stays a pound on the label. What it buys can change. Gold and silver give us two illustrations over the same 1991 to 2026 window as the main page.
Dated snapshot: 7 November 2026 (GMT). Not a live price feed. Usually updated monthly.
Comparisons of what a pound buys
A few comparisons
What about an ounce of metal?
Here the question is not “what return could I have made?” It is “how many pounds did it take to buy the same weight?” The two charts use separate scales so silver is not flattened next to gold.
| Metal | Start of 1991 | 7 Nov 2026 snapshot | As many pounds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold, per troy ounce | £201.71 | £3,048.89 | About 15.1 times |
| Silver, per troy ounce | £2.15 | £38.99 | About 18.1 times |
Multiples are latest divided by start price, before rounding. They are price comparisons, not investment returns after costs or tax.
How the pound price has changed over the last 10 years
As of 7 November 2026: Gold: £3,048.89 | Silver: £38.99 per troy ounce.
Metal lookbacks use daily futures prices as a proxy, not spot fixes. The end prices are the indicative chart snapshots. See the method and source differences below.
| Period | Gold | Silver |
|---|---|---|
| 1 year | −0.1% | +6.7% |
| 2 years | +45% | +58% |
| 3 years | +91% | +114% |
| 4 years | +106% | +111% |
| 5 years | +127% | +118% |
| 6 years | +105% | +100% |
| 7 years | +168% | +195% |
| 8 years | +226% | +252% |
| 9 years | +215% | +204% |
| 10 years | +198% | +169% |
These are changes in the quoted pound price, not investment returns after dealing costs, storage, premiums or tax. Choosing another end date would change the figures. Not financial advice.
An illustration, not an inflation meter
More pounds are now needed for an ounce than at the start of this window. But it would be wrong to call the whole change “UK inflation”. Global demand, mining supply, interest rates, the pound's exchange rate and, especially for silver, industrial uses also matter.
Gold and silver can fall in pound terms, sometimes for years. Choosing another start date changes the comparison. They are not a fixed-price shopping basket and do not promise to preserve buying power over any particular period. The ONS basket is the direct measure of consumer price inflation here.
Not financial advice. These are historical prices, not advice to buy or sell anything.
A UK distinction
Coins and bars do not all get the same tax treatment
People can buy metal as coins or bars. The form matters for Capital Gains Tax (CGT), not just the metal.
UK legal tender coins: CGT-free
Sovereigns minted from 1837 and Britannias in gold or silver are examples of UK legal tender coins exempt from CGT. Sterling currency is not a chargeable asset. The legal tender condition matters at acquisition or disposal; the exemption is not simply a rule that all gold or silver coins are tax-free.
Bars and foreign coins: no sterling exemption
Gold or silver bars, and foreign legal tender coins such as South African Krugerrands, do not have that UK sterling-currency CGT exemption. Gains may be taxed, depending on allowances, reliefs and individual circumstances. That does not mean every sale creates a tax bill.
Older coins need care too: pre-1837 Sovereigns do not have this legal tender exemption. HMRC describes separate rules for coins that are not legal tender.
Sources: HMRC Capital Gains Manual CG78305 and The Royal Mint's explanation of the coin exemption, checked 7 November 2026. A CGT exemption is not an exemption from every tax or cost. This is not tax advice; rules can change.
Sources and how the figures were made
History: GoldTraders.info gold in GBP and silver in GBP, using the reported start of 1991, then each reported year-end through 2025. The source does not identify the precise trading days in its yearly table. These are point prices, not annual averages.
Latest: Gold API gold and silver indicative spot snapshots, 7 November 2026, 14:38 GMT, converted to pounds by dividing by 1.3356 US dollars per pound, the Yahoo GBP/USD quote at 22:29 GMT on 6 November. Saturday timestamps are quote updates, not evidence of a new market trade. The history and latest point use different providers and quote timings, so small differences are possible.
The charts join annual observations and the latest snapshot with straight lines. They hide movements within each year. Prices are per troy ounce of metal, not the delivered retail price of a particular coin or bar. Dealer premiums, dealing costs, storage and any applicable VAT are not included. Download the chart observations (CSV).
The 1-to-10-year tables compare the same 7 November 2026 chart snapshots with daily quotes on 7 November in each earlier year, or the nearest earlier available quote. For metal lookbacks we use Yahoo Gold futures (GC=F) and Silver futures (SI=F) daily closes, divided by the Yahoo GBP/USD daily close on the quote date, or the nearest earlier available exchange-rate quote. These are rolling futures-price proxies, not spot fixes or retail coin prices. Contract changes and futures pricing can affect the comparison with the indicative spot-price end snapshots; the tables do not use the charts' annual metal points. Metal lookbacks for 7 November 2021 and 2020 use 5 November 2021 and 6 November 2020 respectively because the target dates were at weekends. All other metal lookbacks use 7 November. Bitcoin lookbacks use the existing Yahoo BTC-GBP daily series on 7 November in every year, including weekends.
Each cell is calculated as (end price / lookback price − 1) × 100, with a leading plus or minus sign. Changes below 10% in magnitude are shown to one decimal place; larger changes are rounded to a whole percentage. These are cumulative price changes, not yearly averages or annualised rates. Prices in the download retain the calculation precision. Download the table lookback dates, prices and calculations (CSV). Table sources checked 7 November 2026 (GMT).