>Even when the US had the gold standard, the US never had gold reserves that matched the dollars in circulation. The US Dollar is/was originally defined as a m

>Even when the US had the gold standard, the US never had gold reserves that matched the dollars in circulation. The US Dollar is/was originally defined as a measurement of silver, and based upon the Spanish Real - the same coin you hear in piratey accents as a "piece of eight" because it was usually cut into 8 pieces to make change. The US absolutely had metal to back every dollar in existence for about 100 years, though it wasn't gold. The real "gold standard" era was a stopover/band-aid effect of the growing disparity in value due to bimetallism, and came into effect after "The Crime of 1873".