When gold was found in Sutter’s Ranch in 1848, the Gold Rush occurred and Salmon Chase printed the first U.S. paper currency in 1861. While there was bimetallism, there were those who preferred gold standard which was the backing dollars only with gold. The Gold Standard was established in 1879 when it was abandoned in 1973. The Gold Standard occurred in the mid-1800’s with most counties adopting it.The Gold Standard was significant because silver was more plentiful than gold and backing currency with both metals would make more currency available.
