<P> During the 19th century the dollar was less accepted around the world than the British pound . Nellie Bly carried Bank of England notes on her 1889 - 1890 trip around the world in 72 days; she also brought some dollars, Bly wrote, "to use at different ports as a test to see if American money was known outside of America". Traveling east from New York, she did not see American money until she found $20 gold pieces used as jewelry in Colombo; there Bly found that as currency dollars were accepted at a 60% discount . </P> <P> In 1878, the Bland - Allison Act was enacted to provide for freer coinage of silver . This act required the government to purchase between $2 million and $4 million worth of silver bullion each month at market prices and to coin it into silver dollars . This was, in effect, a subsidy for politically influential silver producers . </P> <P> The discovery of large silver deposits in the Western United States in the late 19th century created a political controversy . Due to the large influx of silver, the value of silver in the nation's coinage dropped precipitously . On one side were agrarian interests such as the United States Greenback Party that wanted to retain the bimetallic standard in order to inflate the dollar, which would allow farmers to more easily repay their debts . On the other side were Eastern banking and commercial interests, who advocated sound money and a switch to the gold standard . This issue split the Democratic Party in 1896 . It led to the famous "cross of gold" speech given by William Jennings Bryan, and may have inspired many of the themes in The Wizard of Oz . Despite the controversy, the status of silver was slowly diminished through a series of legislative changes from 1873 to 1900, when a gold standard was formally adopted . The gold standard survived, with several modifications, until 1971 . </P> <P> Bimetallism persisted until March 14, 1900, with the passage of the Gold Standard Act, which provided that: </P>

When did the us currency stop being backed by gold