The PRICE of GOLD leapt by the most US Dollars per ounce ever on Wednesday, peaking above $5300 as the US currency showed its worst 12-month plunge since 2011 and Democratic politicians tried to stop President Trump's face appearing on the $1 coin to mark this year's 250th anniversary of American independence.

Setting its 11th new record high inside the first 4 weeks of 2026, gold today fixed around $5270 per Troy ounce at London's 10:30 auction, rising almost $182 from yesterday's AM benchmark.

That marked the 3rd new record daily move for gold in US Dollars in just 6 sessions.

The Dollar meantime rallied a little from yesterday's plunge to new 4-year lows on its DXY index against 6 of the rich world's other leading currencies. But it held on track for its worst 12-month drop since June 2011.

Gold has now risen by 87.4% in Dollar terms since Donald Trump moved back into the White House a year ago.

But adjusted by the DXY index against European and the Japanese currency, the price has risen only 66.5%.

"Dollar slides as Trump says he is not concerned with its recent decline," says a headline at the Financial Times online.

"Investors bet on 'hot' US economy heading into midterm elections," says another.

With global stock markets falling Wednesday after the S&P500 index of US stocks set a new all-time record in Dollar terms but not in any foreign currencies, silver today set its 4th new London midday record in a row, rising by 55.6% since New Year's Eve with its fastest 4-week gain since April 1987 at $113 per Troy ounce.

Between endorsing Republican candidates for this November's mid-term elections overnight, the President said on the TruthSocial platform which he owns that "a massive Armada is heading to Iran...larger than that sent to Venezuela" and ready to act with "speed and violence" if the Islamic theocracy doesn't "make a deal" promising not to develop nuclear weapons.

A meeting of federal agency the Commission of Fine Arts last week decided that putting the current President's face on a legal tender coin wouldn't violate any laws, with one commissioner apparently saying that the proposed profile of Donald Trump has "a statesman-like quality to the quaff of the hair."

But on Monday, says USA Today, five Democratic senators and one independent wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to say that "placing the bust of a living president on a coin celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence would send a message to America and the world that contradicts who we are as a nation."