The Coinage Act of 1792 set the US dollar as a particular weight in silver.

People in the US were using worn out Spanish Dollars; so they took a stack of coins from circulation and set the dollar equal that amount of silver.

The founders thought that the ratio of the price of gold to silver was a given; so they created a gold coin based on this ratio.

The system didn't work. Every time there was a gold or silver discovery, there would be a financial crisis. It was also absurd to leave one's economy hostage to the ups and downs of the mining sector.

The idea that the US dollar was equal to the price of a given weight in silver held for a few hundred years. The gold standard is not a total myth.

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