Gold Digger

The Classical Gold Standard
The Gold Standard was a system under which nearly all countries fixed the value of their currencies in terms of a specified amount of gold, or linked their currency to that of a country which did so. Domestic currencies were freely convertible into gold at the fixed price and there was no restriction on the import or export of gold. Gold coins circulated as domestic currency alongside coins of other metals and notes, with the composition varying by country. As each currency was fixed in terms of gold, exchange rates between participating currencies were also fixed.

Gold’s Role as Money and the Gold Standard
The history of gold is long connected with money, but gold relinquished this role in developed economies after the outbreak of the Second World War. At the end of the war, the Bretton Woods monetary system, a regime of fixed exchange rates, was created. This system broke down in 1971 when the US unilaterally ended its gold standard, which set the convertibility of gold and the dollar to US$35 per ounce.

References to the Gold Standard often refer to two key periods in history: that of the Classical Gold Standard and that of the post Bretton Woods gold-pegged exchange rate system.