History of the Gold Standard. Since its founding in 1776, the United States has had a variety of monetary systems including bimetallic systems where the dollar was backed by both gold and silver (1792-1862), a fiat monetary system (1862-1879), a full gold standard (1879-1933), and a partial gold standard (1933-1971). The gold/currency connection has not always been a one-to-one relationship. For example, at one point the U.S. was on a 40% gold standard, meaning 40% of its money supply was "backed" by gold, and the other 60% was not. The US was also on a bimetallic standard in its early history, with both gold and silver backing the currency supply. Energy Backed Money vs. Gold Standard vs. Fiat Currency. In this chapter I compare energy backed money with both the current system of fiat money and the former system of the gold standard. In particular I focus on the suggested implementation of energy backed money discussed in Chapter 6 which is to have the dollar backed by a guaranteed Commodity money has an intrinsic value, which means it has a perceived or true value attached to it. This type of currency is derived from a material that has value, such as gold or silver. Fiat Fiat currencies are a type of paper money issued by a government's central bank that's not back by any commodity or precious metal. Under the gold standard, U.S. citizens could turn in their Fiat money is a government-issued legal tender supported by the regime and not tangible commodities. For example, foreign currencies like the Euro and the US dollar. Fiat currency was first introduced in China in 1000 AD. It was retained in the US until President Richard Milhous Nixon ended the conversion potential in 1971. .

fiat currency vs gold standard