World's Reserve Currency

So what happened to the prior "world's reserve currency"?

"The US' willingness to help Britain return to a half-baked gold standard by keeping interest rates lower than they should have been led directly to the stock market boom of the late 1920's, and the subsequent depression. The downturn in world trade hit the rigid and uncompetitive British economy hard, and in 1931 Britain finally faced the reality of its disastrous monetary policy and abandoned the gold standard. The pound plummeted against gold and those countries holding pound sterling as reserves, believing it was "as good as gold," suffered massive losses. In this way the pound relinquished its role as the world's reserve currency."

See if you can spot any rhyming history in this story.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/canavan1.1.1.html