What is a gold standard and what does it mean when a country goes off it?
336828
First, it's worth it to say that no country uses the gold standard anymore.\n\nA gold standard is a money system in which the paper currency is worth a fixed weight of gold. In the U.S., back when dollars, half-dollars, quarters and dimes were really made of silver, nickels of nickel and pennies of copper (all precious metals), paper bills were actually Gold and Silver Certificates, meaning they were directly exchangeable for equivalent amounts of gold and silver, coins or otherwise.  \n\nEver notice that the edges of traditionally silver and gold coins are ridged?  This was to prevent people from "shaving" the coins, thereby reducing their weight and therefore, their value.  Remember, weight = value in the gold standard system.  A dime was 10 cents worth of gold/silver weight; a quarter, 25 cents worth of gold/silver weight, which accounts for the difference in size.\n\nUsing the gold standard means that there has to be enough gold in reserve to effectually "cash-in" all paper money in the system.  Fort Knox was and still is the United States' primary respository for gold.\n\nWhen a country abandons a hard currency system (i.e., the gold standard), it issues what is called a "fiat" currency.  Our Federal Reserve Notes are an example of a fiat currency.  This means that you can no longer exchange a paper note for gold or silver.  The value of our money is instead guaranteed by the government.  That's why our money states that it is legal tender for all debts public and private. That means that no one can refuse to accept a paper bill in payment for goods or services.  \n\nThat may not sound so ominous nowadays, but even back in the 1950's, I remember people who would adamantly refuse to accept change in fiat paper money (federal reserve notes).  The government really only facilitated the acceptance of federal reserve notes when it outlawed and recalled all Silver certificates in 1964.  All redemption stopped in 1968.  Gold Certificates were forfeit in 1933 and for a long time, except for collector coins, it was illegal for private citizens to hold gold or gold certificates.  \n\nSome currencies, like the U.S. dollar and the British Pound Sterling, because of their government's stability, eventually came to be seen as "hard currencies" in themselves.  Most other nations based or "floated" the value of their own currencies against the value of the U.S. dollar or the British Pound Sterling.\n\nTwo good sites to peruse about money and money systems are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_currency\nand\nhttp://www.ronscurrency.com/
644172
Gold is a pretty good standard. :) And it should be worth...well...gold.
290025
I'm not sure there is a final standing.  In the US, metal talleys were by total metals.  In Europe they were reporting Golds first.  I don't know how one can quantify a final position if "competitors" are using different measures of success.
598562
The value of gold varies from day to day.\nTook a look here for historical data:\n\nhttp://www.kitco.com/charts/historicalgold.html
864657
Gold  = MONEY $$$$$$\n\nEveryone is VERY fond of money. \nSo I don't think that there's a huge difference about which parts of the world would like it more or less.
635708
Buy the symbol GLD. It's an ETF Gold Trust is an investment trust whose shares strive to reflect the performance of the price of gold bullion, less the Trusts expenses.
783881
Countries rise and fall.\n\nTis' but a thing in history.
766215
rub it with a coin,\nif its gold, a soft metal,\nit should make an indent.\n\nif it is flaky, its fools gold.\n\nand here's a real simple test,\nif they are selling them dirt cheap, they are prob fake.\n\ntoo, what are the chances that a man walked into a mine, picked up some gold ( I am sure that a gold mine is guarded) \nand then managed to get it out of the country, \nand after all that, wants to sell it to you?
514721
My goodness, people are sadly ignorant.  Yes, of course, private ownership of gold in the U.S. was outlawed by Franklin Roosevelt back in the 1930's, and that lasted until the mid-1970's.  I'm ashamed to think that people have no idea.  Even at that time, however, there was an exception made for gold jewelry.  That may explain part of the confusion.  However, owning gold was against the law.\n\nThe idea was to put control over the currency completely in the hands of government, and make our fiat paper money system completely dominant.  Pre-1930, governments didn't have complete control over their currencies, because they were convertible to gold, which was then a primary international currency itself. Governments then could not easily manipulate the values of their currencies, because the market would respond quickly to devaluations.\n\nIn other words, the outlawing of gold ownership was part of a plan to remove the monetary system from the free market, and make it a centrally planned system.  Even when gold was legalized again, it never recovered its previous role as a core world currency.  Central banks around the world still have incredible power to manipulate their currencies to suit the whims of their governments.
505341
The symbol above is a Pound from England.  The elaborate L stands for the abbreviation of lb. (libra - pound)\n\nThe Australian dollar (currency code AUD) has been, since 1966, the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including the Australian Antarctic Territory, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $ or alternatively A$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is sometimes affectionately called the "Aussie battler"—during a low period (relative to the US dollar) around 2001 and 2002 the currency was sometimes locally called the "Pacific Peso". It is divided into 100 cents. All previous issues of Australian coins and banknotes, including Pounds, shillings and pence are still legal tender.\n\nThe Australian dollar is currently the sixth-most-traded currency in world foreign exchange markets (behind the US dollar, the yen, the euro, the British pound and the Canadian dollar), accounting for approximately 4-5% of worldwide foreign exchange transactions. The Australian dollar is popular with currency traders due to the relative lack of government intervention in the foreign exchange market, the general stability of the economy and government as well as the prevailing view that it offers diversification benefits in a portfolio containing the major world currencies (especially because of its greater exposure to Asian economies and the commodities cycle).
274743
Limited effect. Thirty years ago, everyone and their grandmother was saying the same thing when gold was valued only in dollars. \nAfter, other nation started using their currencies, arbitrageurs, speculators made the market so efficient \nthat nothing happenned.\nThey were wrong 30 years ago, they are wrong now.\nBy now, the effect is priced on all financial markets.
1019477
The currency value of a country is estimated due to that country's gold reserves ( Who was created by US after the ending of World War II ).\n\nSorry, I cannot answer your second question since I don't know the answer.
616423
Gold prices are effected by world circumstances. This means when time are rocky (like the 9/11 terrorist attack) people tend to invest in solid dependable things like gold. This forces the price up because everybody wants it. When things are a bit more secure people sell their gold to by other stocks, so the price does down. This is a simplification but over all it not to wide of the mark.\n\nInterestingly someone told me the other day that three quaters of the world's Gold already been mined!
1001934
Mark: \nMoney. Normally means the silver mark, a measure of silver, generally eight ounces, accepted throughout medieval western Europe. Although they were sometimes "clipped" or "debased," the English silver penny contained a standard weight of silver and so could be traded across Europe. In England the mark was worth thirteen shillings and four pence, ie. two thirds of £1. Equivalent to present value of the Euro.
326796
The amount of money in circulation has nothing to do with the price of Gold or Silver. The dollar is not tied to either commodity. The dollar floats and is only tied to the "good will" of the US Government.
61103
Nah, they aren't fake. America didn't even go on the gold standard until 1873 and they didn't stop making silver certificates until 1964. You can't redeem it for silver, though. They were abolished by Congress on June 4, 1963 and all redemption in silver ceased on June 24, 1968. Still worth a dollar or whatever collector's value is.
531233
nah. it's a vault in the US where we stash our gold bricks. that is why our currency has so much value