No, the currency is not backed by gold. While in the past, currency was backed by gold, today, currencies are backed by the governments that issue them. Gold was used to back currency when countries subscribed to the gold standard. This standard required that the currency held by a government be matched equally by the value of a physical quantity of gold held by the government. This system, however, limited the government’s flexibility in terms of creating new money (more currency could only be obtained with a simultaneous increase in the value of gold held by the government).