"In the 1930s, the United States fixed the value of the dollar at a single, immutable level: 1 ounce of gold was worth $35." (Grabianowski, 2004) Many other countries, after World War II, began basing the value of their currency around the dollar. They already knew where the dollar was going versus gold. Let's say if a currency is worth three times more gold than the dollar. You can imagine it's worth three dollars. After many years, the dollar was hit by inflation and they couldn't keep up. According to Grabianowski (2004), “the United States could no longer pretend that the dollar was worth as much as it once was, so the value was officially reduced so that 1 ounce of gold was now worth $70.” If you look, the conversion was 1 ounce for $35, now it's $70. The value of the dollar was halved. In 1971, the United States abandoned the gold standard, and today “the US dollar and the euro account for approximately 50% of all currency exchange transactions in the world.” currencies. If you go online most exchange rates are represented in the United States