To stir the pot, post it in the Survival forum.  fiat better than gold standard

Interesting read. I've never read much about the gold standard but this is some good perspective.

Based on this article I can see the advantages of owning gold or silver as they are convertible into any currency, but I don't see the advantage of tying the value of a given currency to it. It may limit a central banks ability to unfavorably manipulate the money supply, but it also limits favorable manipulation such as during an economic downturn.

The part I'm curious about is the article discusses the effects of a gold standard with the continuing use of central banking, whereas I know most of the proponents of the gold standard are also proponents of removing the central bank(s). They do make the case that the gold standard does not stop price volatility with the use of a central bank, but they don't discuss much if it were to be removed in conjunction with a reintroduction of the gold standard.

The Federal Reserve bank was created in 1913 and their data seems to stop at 1914. Based on their chart I see the price of gold in nominal U.S. Dollars as pretty stagnant from 1914 up until the 1930s when the Federal Reserve's powers were significantly increased during the depression. Of course, the chart also shows a good bit more volatility in the price of gold in inflation adjusted dollars throughout the spectrum and then increasing in volatility leading up to the end of the gold standard. It might be interesting to analyze that chart a bit more closely adding in milestone markers for changes in power/policy in the central banking system.

This where political science history is important.  A dollar technically and specifically stated in the constitution is just a unit of accounting in grains of silver; 371.25 grains This amount was based on the frequently traded Spanish coin. The dollar name is based on thaler where there was a silver mine. This means this amount of silver was synonymous with the dollar. The dollar had this much silver in the actual coin and the paper certificates were exchangeable for this coin.

The British pound was also a unit of measure for money. A pound of silver. This was a tower pound that was something like 5400 grains.

Later the fed government fought over whether to back the dollar with either gold (rich east coast bankers) or silver (farmers) or bi-metal.

So to answer your question, American money was ACTUALLY the metal. They were the same.