gold standard

Noun

gold standard (plural gold standards)

1. A monetary system where the value of circulating money is linked to the value of gold.
   • In countries that accepted the gold standard, currency could be exchanged at a bank for a fixed weight of gold.2002, Philip Ball, The Elements: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, published 2004, page 57
2. (figuratively) The highest or most reliable benchmark against which all others in a category are judged or measured.
   • The OED is the gold standard for English dictionaries.
   • YC’s gold standard for revenue growth is ten per cent a week, which compounds to 142x a year.2016 October 3, Tad Friend, “Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny”, in The New Yorker