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Gold's role in the International Monetary System: Past and Present
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...
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Ancient times to 1900
Gold is the world's oldest international currency, having played a role in most countries' currency systems for well over two thousand years...
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1900 to 1971
The classic gold standard existed for a comparatively short period - from the 1870’s to the outbreak of World War I...
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1971 to date
After attempts to revive a Bretton Woods based system failed, governments formally abandoned the two-tier gold market...
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Additional information
Gold and the international monetary system - a chronology 1717 to date...
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Historical records back to the 17th Century
To aid further research by scholars, journalists and all those interested in gold’s monetary role...
