Here's just a quick and utterly simplified history of the US Dollar:
- 1520 - the Kingdom of Bohemia minting silver coins in Joachimsthal (Jáchymov)
- thaler or taler → tolar → dollar
- 1792 - US dollar defined as “unit of pure silver weighing 371 4/16th grains (24.057 grams)
- 1900 - Gold Standard Act: dollar defined as 23.22 grains (1.505 g) of gold
- 1933 - Gold confiscated by Executive Order 6102 (by Franklin Roosevelt)
- 1944 - Bretton Woods Agreement: 44 countries peg their currency to US Dollar (not gold…)
- 1971 - Nixon removing US dollar from being backed by gold → fiat currency
- ~ Nixon: “Your dollar will be worth just as much tomorrow as it is today”
And so then
- 1971 - 56 billions of USD in circulation, for 1000$ you get 28.5 oz of gold
- 2021 - 2194 billions of USD in circulation, for 1000$ you get 0.5 oz of gold