Up until 1968, dollars were convertible into gold and pegged at $35 / oz [1], meaning the government intervened to keep it at that price.
From 1968-1971, the US still honored that rate with other countries, but stopped intervening in the private gold market [2]. Then the US left the gold standard, and everyone else followed suit.
well, that's not at at all what I asked for an example of. I know the history of the gold standard and when/how/why the dollar was taken off gold backing.
I would like to know of a historical example of when a significant (meaning large quantity, high economic impact) exchange of dollar denominated treasury notes were redeemed for their face value in gold metal. did that ever even happen? I'm unaware of any instances of that, but then, I'm not a scholar in the field.
How is that any different from redeeming notes in dollars, then buying gold for the pegged price of $35/oz.?
Since the markets were open and liquid, I'm sure people converted between gold and dollars all the time. It just wasn't anything to make note of.
What did cause Nixon to take the US out of Bretton Woods is when a bunch of our trading partners threatened to redeem dollars for gold all at once, and we didn't have enough gold to cover it.
Up until 1968, dollars were convertible into gold and pegged at $35 / oz [1], meaning the government intervened to keep it at that price.
From 1968-1971, the US still honored that rate with other countries, but stopped intervening in the private gold market [2]. Then the US left the gold standard, and everyone else followed suit.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_d...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system