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1971

Gold window closes

15 August: the United States suspends dollar–gold convertibility for foreign officials.

President Richard Nixon seated at a table meeting with economic advisors and Cabinet members.
President Nixon with economic advisors — the policy circle around the 1971 gold-window decision.Public domain — U.S. government photograph (NARA 194579).

On 15 August 1971 the United States stopped converting dollars into gold for foreign official holders. That was the last official gold contract on the post-war dollar.

Private Americans had already been barred from monetary gold since the 1933 recall. 1971 did not invent fiat in one night. It ended that remaining official link.

Nixon shock 1971 →