The founding fathers thought differently. Roger Sherman was responsible for this one being in, but they all agreed to it: Article 1, Section 10, Clause 1, No state shall...make anything but Gold and Silver COIN a tender in the payment of debt.
That is about as simple as it gets. The law of the land people, so why does everyone ignore it, and yet be so ready to invoke it over non-issues such as "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance?
Think how big the "gold and silver" market would be if gold and silver was monetized (everybody will have some), and would be therefore somewhat harder to manipulate. If the size of the market is what you are going by.
Anyway, please. This hardly qualifies as a plummet.