InsanePeopleFacebook

Gold was never a widespread means of payment for the common people. It is way too rare for that to even be a practical possibility. Aristocracy, kings and emperors may have occasionally done this, but only for major things and matters of state, or sometimes when they wanted to impress someone. Also, a bit later, banks of course held on to a lot of gold and long distance traders used it, because they couldn't rely on either their customary set of values nor on credit from the locals.

Silver, for obvious reasons, was more widespread, but still far from universal.

The common people would pay for things with stuff that both parties agreed was worth a certain amount of gold or silver (prices were a lot more rigid back then), possibly other metals, but quite possibly just IOUs or other forms of credit. In a tightly knit rural community where everybody know everybody else, and neighbors would assume to stay neighbors for their whole lives, that actually worked. In a modern suburb where knowing your next-door neighbor's name is more a matter of maybe-if-you're-feeling-polite, not so much.

It is true, however, that the US government at some point confiscated gold from private citizens and outlawed private ownership of gold. Once in 1933, and then arguably once more in 1971.