Editing Representative money

{{Short description|Money whose face value is greater than its physical value}}
[[File:Goldcertificate front.jpg|thumb|right|U.S. $50 gold certificate]]

'''Representative money''' or '''receipt money''' is any [[medium of exchange]], physical or digital, that represents something of [[Value (economics)|value]], but has little or no value of its own ([[intrinsic value (finance)|intrinsic value]]). Unlike some forms of [[fiat money]] (which may have no [[commodity]] backing), genuine representative money must have something of intrinsic value supporting the [[face value]].<ref name=mundell/>

More specifically, the term ''representative money'' has been used variously to mean:
* A claim on a commodity, for example [[gold certificate|gold]] and [[silver certificate]]s.<ref name="mundell">Robert A. Mundell, [http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/download/fedora_content/download/ac:114139/CONTENT/econ_0102_08.pdf The Birth of Coinage], Discussion Paper #:0102-08, Department of Economics, [[Columbia University]], February 2002.</ref><ref>Jon Hooks, ''Economics:fundamentals for financial services providers'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=wfbfki5YB0UC&dq=Money+representative&pg=PA201 p. 201] {{ISBN|0-89982-494-3}}, {{ISBN|978-0-89982-494-9}} Retrieved September 9, 2009</ref><ref name="p.30">William Howard Steiner, ''Money and banking'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=gq6CAAAAIAAJ&q=representative+money p. 30], H. Holt and company, 1941.</ref> In this sense it may be called "[[Monetary system#Commodity-backed money|commodity-backed money]]".
* Any type of [[money]] that has face value greater than its value as material substance.  Used in this sense, most types of [[fiat money]] are a type of representative money.<ref>{{cite book
|title=A Treatise on Money
|author=John Maynard Keynes
|volume=1
|page=7
|chapter=1. The Classification of Money
|orig-year=1930
|year=1965
|quote=Fiat Money is Representative (or token) Money (i.e something the intrinsic value of the material substance of which is divorced from its monetary face value)
|publisher=Macmillan & Co Ltd}}</ref>

There is no concrete evidence that the clay tokens used as an accounting tool to keep track of warehouse stores in ancient Mesopotamia were also used as representative money.
<ref name="Schmandt-Besserat">[https://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/ Denise Schmandt-Besserat], [https://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/tokens/tokens/ Tokens: their Significance for the Origin of Counting and Writing]</ref><ref>Keynes, J.M. (1930). ''A Treatise on Money''. Volume I, p. 13</ref> However, the idea has been suggested.<ref name=mundell/>

In 1895 economist [[Joseph Shield Nicholson]] wrote that credit expansion and contraction was in fact the expansion and contraction of representative money.<ref>[[Joseph Shield Nicholson]], ''A treatise on money and essays on monetary problems''], Chapter VI, Effects of Credit or "Representative Money" on prices, [https://archive.org/details/treatiseonmoney00nichiala/page/72 <!-- quote="representative money". --> pp. 72–74], A. and C. Black, 1895.</ref>

In 1934 economist William Howard Steiner wrote that the term was used "at one time to signify that a certain amount of bullion was stored in the Treasury while the equivalent paper in circulation" represented the bullion.<ref name="p.30"/>

==See also==
*[[Commodity money]]
*[[Gold standard]]
*[[Hard currency]]
*[[Silver standard]]
*[[Store of value]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Means of Exchange}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Representative Money or Receipt Money}}
[[Category:Currency]]
[[Category:Metallism]]