What the story doesn't seem to say, however, is anything about the inherent superiority of gold to currency, which you seem to imply.  The only reason people switched to gold seems to be because the bank couldn't make any more dollars available due to the economic isolation of the sanctions. With more gold also unavailable, gold is also in the same problem as dollars and euros. This means people would still prefer dollars, a foreign enemy's currency but one that is viewed as truly sovereign, like coins with Caesar's head, if they were still able to access them.