The US adopted the gold standard
On this day · 14 March 1900
After decades of fierce monetary warfare, a single 1900 law pinned the American dollar firmly—and only—to gold.
On March 14, 1900, the United States adopted the Gold Standard Act, making gold—and only gold—the legal basis of its paper currency. Signed under President William McKinley, the law defined the dollar as 25.8 grains of gold that was nine-tenths fine, fixing its value at about $20.67 per troy ounce, and required the Treasury to redeem specified paper money in gold coin on demand.
The act didn’t invent the gold standard so much as settle it in statute. The Coinage Act of 1873 and the Resumption Act of 1875 had already nudged the country onto gold by default.
The law ended one of the fiercest monetary fights in American history.
That fight had pitted gold’s backers against the Free Silver movement led by William Jennings Bryan, who argued silver-backed money would relieve indebted farmers. McKinley’s 1896 victory effectively decided it. The gold standard held until 1933, when the Great Depression pushed Franklin Roosevelt to abandon it.
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