The 1803 20 Franc was circulating legal tender in France until the Great Depression. The nominal return was thus 0.0% for about 100 years. Because there was also deflation, there was a small positive real return.
The main big return to gold was in the post 1960 period. Gold in the USA was officially $42/oz until the 70s, but practically speaking we were off the standard before then. Still, you could get gold for about $40-50oz in the 50s and early 60s, now worth $1800oz.
