Canada Empties Almost All Its Gold Reserves

At an increasingly distant point in history, a government’s currency was backed by gold reserves. But slowly, governments abandoned “the gold standard,” most notably occurring in 1971 when then U.S. President Richard Nixon abandoned the gold standard, and moved to "fiat" currencies where the value was based on faith in the government. This Today another milestone, if slightly less monumental, occurred when the government of Canada confirmed that it had sold most its gold reserves.

Canada has been steadily selling its gold reserves since the 1960s

The Canadian government’s gold reserves had been steadily declining since the mid-1960s, when the commodity rich nation...