Gold Standard, Definition
The gold standard is a monetary system in which a country's currency unit is freely convertible into a fixed weight of gold. The Gold Standard was used between 1870 and 1914 - currencies were fixed at a set exchange rate to ounces of gold. Countries that shared this fixed unit of account in principle shared a fixed currency relationship. The Gold Standard was dropped at the beginning of World War I and is no longer used in any nation.
See also: Bretton Woods, Alan Greenspan