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Physical currency is really nothing more than an agreement between parties that the paper is representative of some value. In actuallity, it's really just another piece of paper, but it's considerably easier to exchange than goats or cows or gallons of fuel.

I'm a fan of their use of the 'Rock Band' typeface on the Trillion Dollar notes.




Currency is based on your belief that the mint won't print lots of money. If you do that, the money becomes worthless. Like in Zimbabwe.


I think there was more going on there than just printing the money. For instance, the farms were going fallow, there were sanctions, etc, limiting supply of goods and driving up prices even without considering the money supply.


Not just another piece of paper, though. It's subsidized paper. If the value of a dollar becomes low enough, a physical dollar bill is actually cheaper than a piece of paper.


They'll probably switch to higher denominations, then. Germany had Billion Mark _coins_ in the twenties.


Did you read the article? Looks like the posters are printed on bills "valuing" as much as Z$50,000,000,000.


Oh, sorry. I was thrown off by `dollar' in the grand-parent, and did not think about the Z$.


It's not just another piece of paper. You have to pay your taxes in dollars and you are forced to settle debts in dollars.


Actually currency is more a debt than an agreement.

When you have a 20 € bill, the European Central bank "owns you 20 €".

Since people have faith in the bank ability to pay its debt, everybody uses the note as money.


> Actually currency is more a debt than an agreement. When you have a 20 € bill, the European Central bank "owns you 20 €".

What does it mean for the central bank to owe me 20 euros? Specifically, what do I get when they pay me what I'm owed?

If the answer is 20 euros....


I think they mean $20 worth of value be it gold or some other bankable theoretical material. Originally us dollars were tied to physical gold assets


> I think they mean $20 worth of value be it gold or some other bankable theoretical material. Originally us dollars were tied to physical gold assets.

While dollars were originally tied to physical assets, I'm asking about what the central bank give me today for my 20 euros or dollars.


It doesn't matter. You get nothing directly, but that's not the point (and is part of the reason they got rid of the gold standard). The point is that the store will accept it as payment for an actual thing, and its employees will accept it as payment for actual work, and the stores they go to will accept it as payment for actual things, and their employees will accept it as payment for actual work, etc.

What you get is the stuff that you buy. Or more directly, what you get is buying power.


> It doesn't matter.

The person who claimed otherwise disagrees - he said that it was a payable debt.

> You get nothing directly, but that's not the point

Except that it is. If the answer is "nothing", than a 20 euro note is nothing more than confidence in competence of the financial system.

While you may not see any alternatives to said confidence, that doesn't mean that it is justified.

How much confidence do you have in them?


The note is the debt, like a check.

20 € bill = currency (debt in paper) 20 € on your account = money


20€ worth of government work.


Actually, it's more like 20 Euro worth of paying your taxes, and thus not going to jail.


Currency is not a debt. Money in general is a store of value and a unit of account. You can buy things with money, you can't buy things with debt.


In general, currency is not a debt, but in practise it is. See http://www.moneyasdebt.net/




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