For 27 years, every major currency's value was pinned, directly or indirectly, to gold
In 1944, representatives of 44 Allied nations met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, and agreed that the US dollar would be convertible to gold at a fixed rate, while other currencies would be pegged to the dollar. The arrangement gave the world a stable exchange-rate system through decades of post-war reconstruction, until mounting US deficits led President Nixon to suspend dollar-to-gold convertibility in 1971, ending the system and ushering in the floating exchange rates still used today.