From: "Tim May" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Nearly all forms of money are more like IOUs than any other single > description.
Right. > With British money it is the Bank of England (so I hear, > but maybe it has changed to some sort of U.K. reference) that says > "Anyone who presents this IOU for 10 pounds will be given either > another IOU for the same amount or will be, sometimes, given gold or > silver." Wrong. I can do this - I can write IOUs "redeemable" in other IOUs or, "sometimes", in gold or silver. The reason the IOUs emitted by the Bank of England were *initially* accepted was that they were redeemable in gold or silver. *One* reason they are now accepted is that they are legal tender - you can pay your taxes with them, and companies are forbidden from accepting them as payment. Mark