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This actually happened in 1965. De Gaulle, the president of France at the time, sent the French Navy over to America and took their reserve gold back home. This prompted other countries to do the same and by 1971 America had switched from a gold standard to a fiat currency.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exorbitant_privilege

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> I imagine a convoy of small but heavily armored ships

It’s typically flown [1].

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...

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And in the past it has been shipped in boxes labelled "fish"[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fish

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Alas, goldfish wouldn’t be invented until 1962 [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfish_(cracker)

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