As stated above, the adoption of gold and silver as money by a jurisdiction is significant, no matter what jurisdiction it is. The significance increases as the number of jurisdictions (and individuals) participating in the practice increases.
It is unclear what this means in the contest of the article. The shops accept gold coins --- fine. Well, you can buy lots of stuff in Italy for dollars, but dollar-denotminated trade has never been accepted by that jurisdiction. I think you are reading too much into this.
I respectfully question your criterion as well. The world economic system is not a democracy; the number of jurisdictions does not matter: what matters is their proportions in the economy. An example of Italy or even Hungary matters to some extent, but Malaysia hardly. By the same toke, you could count a great number of African jurisdictions that adopted socialism in 1960s. What is the effect on the world system today? None at all (aside for a greater need for assistance of that even more impoverished continent).