The problem IMHO is that except in very small local systems, even a economy based on gold coins is not beyond government manipulation, and hence not “honest” in the sense we mean here. A certificate backed by gold held in reserve is only “honest” if the number of certificates issued is limited by the amount of gold being held (obviously). I suspect that if everyone 100 years ago went to the bank on the same day to exchange their certificates for gold, the truth is that there would not be enough gold to go around even then. Had that actually happened, or even come close to happening, the government would have no choice but step in.
I think most people understood that there wasn’t enough gold to cover every single note in the country. It did give governments a hell of an incentive to stay honest, fiscally responsible and prudent in order to avoid a run on the bank. Under the gold standard, the value of money could not be manipulated for short term gain, and inflation could only happen within fixed parameters. A pound in 1914 was worth more or less the same as it was in 1814. Nowadays, inflation is constant, and we talk of the inflation RATE like its the most normal thing in the world to have a rate where the only variable is how fast money is being inflated, rather than whether it is at all.