Question: Americans once could exchange paper dollars for gold at the Treasury. When and why did that stop?
Answer: The United States began retreating from the gold standard during the Great Depression, when President Franklin Roosevelt banned private gold ownership in 1933 to halt hoarding and stabilize prices. The dollar remained partly tied to gold for international trade until 1971, when President Richard Nixon severed that final link. Known as the “Nixon Shock,” the move ended the Bretton Woods system and launched the era of floating exchange rates—where the dollar’s value depends not on metal, but on markets and confidence.
