You’d get paper dollars, tin dimes, copper pennies, etc., just like now. The only difference is that the government promised to give you a certain amount of gold in exchange for that dollar (or 1/10th as much per dime, etc.) if you wanted it. It’s not that gold was used as currency, exactly, it’s that currency was pegged to gold.
Think of it like casino chips which are now pegged to dollars. It’s not that you’re betting dollar bills at the poker table, it’s that you’re betting chips that are exchangeable for dollars, so the casino economy is dollar-based, even if you never see a single dead president.
The gold-standard economy was gold-based, even though you never saw a single shiny rock.
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