Under the metallic standard, some kind of metal like gold, silver, etc. is adopted for determining the standard of value of money and the currency of the country is related to such metal.

Standard coins made out of the metal are the principal money under the metallic standard. These standard coins are full-bodied or full weighted legal tender. Their value is equivalent to their intrinsic metallic worth.

If there are two kinds of metals used for minting standard coins, it is called “bimetallism.” If more than two metals are adopted, it is called “multi- metallism.”

If mix metals are adopted in the coinage system meant for standard money, it is referred to as “symmetallism”. We shall, however, discuss monometallism and bimetallism in some detail.