What is
The original idea, that coins and notes should be worth the same amount in metal as was stated on them, disappeared almost immediately. However, the idea that money should at least correspond to a certain amount of precious metal, which would preferably exist in the State’s vaults, survived into the 1900s. In Sweden the State was supposed to have a reserve equal to the amount of all the money it had issued.
In theory, anyone who wanted to could exchange their banknotes for gold at any time. This was called the gold standard.Sweden abandoned the gold standard in 1931. Since then we cannot exchange our money for gold, even though it actually said we could do so on the five kronor notes right up until 1952.
Today there is no longer any link between precious metals and the value of money. In the Western world the link between the value of money and physical coins and notes has also begun to disappear.