The gold standard did not collapse. Governments abolished it in order to pave the way for inflation. von Mises

The gold standard did not collapse. Governments abolished it in order to pave the way for inflation. The whole grim apparatus of oppression and coercion, policemen, customs guards, penal courts, prisons, in some countries even executioners, had to be put into action in order to destroy the gold standard. (Ludwig von Mises, The Theory of Money and Credit, p. 461).