Russia has had to partially peg the Rouble to Gold following the US led economic sanctions to prevent the rouble from falling through the floor. This is current history; not a 19C gig.
The BRICS are scrambling for an alternative to the USD (because of US Greenback bullying) and it looks like that will have to be gold based given that its biggest economy, China, still has its currency ties to the USD.
In the 19th C there wasn't Crypto which currently many see as equivalent to the US fiat dollar. IMO US recent behaviour is indicating that the US mantra, "trust the US" is waning in credibility due to the weaponising of the USD and related institutions.
Here is a realistic scenario: -Like on Russia, that the US imposes crippling economic sanctions on China -Will we observe these sanctions or will we do a China/India and ignore them? -Either way, that is whether we would observe such US economic sanctions on China or not, we would need a currency strategy to prevent the AUD from falling through the floor
Either our national security would be damned if we breached US Russian style economic sanctions on China or our economy would be bursted by observing the prospective sanctions as we do now with Russian economic sanctions. We simply dont want to be a pathetic Argentina or worse Mozambique !
So what is your solution? Fiddle on the Titanic deck?