<P> Fearing the emergence of a specie gold - based economy separate from central banking, and with the corresponding threat of the collapse of the U.S. dollar, the U.S. government approved several changes to the trading on the COMEX . These changes resulted in a steep decline in the traded value of precious metals from the early 1980s onward . </P> <P> In September 1987 under the Reagan administration the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury James Baker made a proposal through the International Monetary Fund to use a commodity basket (which included gold). </P> <P> United States silver certificates were a type of representative money printed from 1878 to 1964 in the United States as part of its circulation of paper currency . They were produced in response to silver agitation by citizens who were angered by the Fourth Coinage Act, and were used alongside the gold - based dollar notes . The silver certificates were initially redeemable in the same face value of silver dollar coins, and later in raw silver bullion . </P> <P> Since the early 1920s, silver certificates were issued in $1, $5, and $10 denominations . In the 1928 series, only $1 silver certificates were produced . Fives and tens of this time were mainly Federal Reserve notes, which were backed by and redeemable in gold . In 1933, Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act which included a clause allowing for the pumping of silver into the market to replace the gold . A new 1933 series of $10 silver certificate was printed and released, but not many were released into circulation . </P>

When was the us dollar backed by silver