The Romans did not stop using gold and silver in their coins.
There was continuous debasement (reduction of the precious metal
content) of the gold and silver coins to the point that they became
worthless. The gold and silver content became minimal, however, the
use of these two mentals was not actually stopped. This caused
hyperinflation. To address this problem Diocletian reformed the
Roman coin system and introduced a new gold coin (the solidus) and
a new silver one (the argenteus, valued at 1/10 of a solidus) which
had a much higher precious metal content. His successor Constantine
suspended the issuing of the silver coin to concentrate on minting
large quantities of the solidus, which became the standard of the
Roman currency system. He then introduced two new silver coins, the
millarense (valued at 1/12 of a solidus) and the siliqua (valued at
1/24 of a solidus).