In 1154 Henry II fixed the value of a penny at 20 grains of sterling silver (92.5%), one pound troy of silver was the value of the English pound. There are 480 grains in a pound troy, hence the somewhat odd 240 pennies to the pound sterling. Historically the ratio of gold/silver has always been fairly constant as long as both were used to back the currency, at the time it was about 10:1, in the 1800′s it went up to 15:1. In 1971 just before the US dropped the gold standard to introduce strictly fiat money, the price of one pound of sterling silver was £7.05 a pound troy. The price of silver had taken a beating in the 30′s when the US demonetized silver leaving only gold to back the currency. At the time gold was £ 202.86 a pound. Compounded annually since 1154, silver rose by .24% and gold by .37%. That is compounded annually over 817 years.
I should have figured out the 30′s figures when silver was still used to back the dollar, I have an idea gold and silver were a lot closer. 1971 was about the last year that gold was still used to back the dollar, there were a lot of rumours about and the prices were somewhat erratic. From 1971 to 2009 the price of silver has gone up by 10.6% per year and gold has gone up by 14.5% per year, both compounded annually.

You have seen rise of the prices of gold and silver over the 817 years when gold and silver was money and you have seen it over the 28 years when money was money and had nothing to do with gold or silver. Not much choice, is there.