Gold standard

A monetary system in which a currency’s value is fixed in terms of gold. Under a convertible gold standard, monetary authorities exchange currency for gold at the stated rate.

Gold convertibility: A monetary arrangement in which currency can be exchanged for gold at a fixed rate. This promise makes a currency’s gold value operational rather than merely stated.
Bimetallism: A monetary system that gives both gold and silver legal monetary status at fixed exchange rates. It competed with gold monometallism over which metals should anchor currency.
Great Depression: A worldwide economic crisis that began in 1929 and lasted through much of the 1930s. Gold-standard constraints limited policy responses and transmitted financial pressure internationally.
Silver standard: A monetary system that defines a currency’s value in terms of a fixed quantity of silver. It anchors money to a different precious metal.
Gold reserves: Gold held by a central bank or government as a financial asset. Reserves supported redemption and constrained how much currency authorities could issue.
Gold specie standard: A gold standard in which gold coins circulate alongside notes redeemable in gold. This was the direct coin-based form of gold-standard money.
Gold Reserve Act: A 1934 United States law that transferred monetary gold to the Treasury and raised its official price. It formalized a major US departure from domestic gold convertibility.
Bimetallic standard: A monetary system that defines currency through fixed values for both gold and silver. It offers a two-metal alternative to a gold-only monetary anchor.
Balance of payments: A record of economic transactions between a country’s residents and the rest of the world. External deficits could drain gold and force adjustments under the standard.
Classical gold standard: The international gold-standard era, commonly dated from the 1870s to the outbreak of World War I. It became the best-known period of broad international adherence to gold parity.

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