1792–1861
Specie dollar
Coins and state banknotes defined early US money.
United States dollar did not appear fully formed. The Coinage Act of 1792 created the dollar as the United States unit of account, defining it in silver and gold and founding the Philadelphia Mint.
Later reforms — decimalisation, central-bank charters, pegs and floats — matter as much as the founding date for how the unit behaves now.
Where it began
1792Philadelphia
The Coinage Act of 1792 created the dollar as the United States unit of account, defining it in silver and gold and founding the Philadelphia Mint.
Timeline
1792Coinage Act
Dollar defined; Philadelphia Mint founded.
1862Greenbacks
Civil War fiat notes circulate beside specie.
1913Federal Reserve
Central bank created after the 1907 panic.
1933Gold recall
Domestic gold convertibility ends under Roosevelt.
1944Bretton Woods
Dollar pegged to gold; others peg to the dollar.
1971Nixon shock
Gold window closed; dollar floats into the modern era.
1973Oil & petrodollars
Oil trade deepens global dollar demand.
1999Euro arrives
A rival reserve currency launches in Europe.
2008GFC
Dollar funding stress forces Fed swap lines.
2020Pandemic liquidity
Fed backstops dollar markets again at scale.
The eras
1861–1913
Greenback to Fed
War finance and national banking reshaped notes.
1913–1944
Fed era
A central bank managed panics and wartime money.
1944–1971
Dollar standard
Bretton Woods made the dollar the global pivot.
1971–present
Fiat dollar
Floating rates and deep dollar markets.
Major reforms
Founding statute
1792Legal creation or major restatement of United States dollar as a unit of account.
Modern central bank framework
20th c.Federal Reserve System (or its predecessor) took primary responsibility for note issue and monetary stability.
FX regime shift
late 20th c.Peg, basket or float arrangements were redefined as capital flows and inflation targets evolved.
Understanding United States dollar starts with its legal birth and the crises that forced redesigns of convertibility and trust.
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