From www.psychopathiceconomics.com, the list of defaults (of varying degrees) from the US.

Previous United States of America Defaults:

  1. 1779 Continental Dollar, 2 cents on the dollar.
  2. 1790 Defaulted on external debt obligations.
  3. 1841 9 states defaulted.
  4. 1863 Greenback- Gold was refused in exchange for Greenback gave notes in exchange for each Greenback.  People lost 40% on each Greenback.
  5. 1873 10 states defaulted.
  6. 1934 Liberty Bonds were oversold so they called in all gold and revalued the dollar by 70%, before then bonds were backed by gold.  Gold in 1933 was $20.67 after Executive Order 6102 (link to it here) gold was revalued at $35.00.
  7. August 15, 1971 Nixon slammed the gold window shut and other countries couldn’t redeem U.S. dollars for gold.