Text 523, 53 rader
Skriven 2009-10-14 08:53:12 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
    Kommentar till text 510 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Currencies
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Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Robert Bashe on Wednesday October 14 2009 at
00:54:

RB>> A currency is legal tender. You pay bills with it. The Ecu was never
RB>> legal tender. Bills were paid in local currency and the Ecu was only
RB>> used as an exchange rate for that.

MV> I have here on my desk, four coins 33mm in diameter, 2.4 mm thick
MV> weighing 17 grams each. The are labelled 2.5 ECU and are dated 1991.

Send them to me and I'll give you EUR 5.00 for both. But you'd be a fool to do
it, as those are patterns and collector's items.

MV> Is it "real money"? In my perception it is just as real as the Euro
MV> coins in my pocket or the Guilder coins that I had in my pocket ten
MV> years ago.

Try buying something in a store with those. They're medals, and the value is
the metal in them. A collector might give you something extra, but that has
nothing to do with the question of legal tender.

MV> Every currency is an accounting unit.

True, but in this case beside the point. The Ecu was never used as a currency,
Ward's example to the contrary, but was simply a currency bundle used for
accounting simplicity. Real currencies are used directly, and are not bundles
of anything but simply "legal tender for all debts, public and private". The
Ecu never fit that bill.

MV> The reverse is also true. Every accounting unit that is accepted as a
MV> currency *is* a currency.

So my credit cards are currency too? And checks in the States? I think you
might have some arguments on that.

MV> As Ward told you, one could have a bank account in ECU and make
MV> payments in ECU. What more do you want of a currency?

Something I can present to the local food store and get goods in return,
something I can pay a doctor bill with, something I can pay my taxes with,
something I personally can deposit and withdraw from a bank account. There were
no such things as "Ecu accounts" in Germany, at least not for private persons
(Who would need them except for companies operating internationally?), and any
deposits or withdrawals would have had to be in legal tender, i.e. HFl, BFl,
DM, FF, Pounds and the like, because there was no such thing as an Ecu
currency. The pieces with Ecu stamped on them may have been legal tender by
fiat, but were never used as such since they were just patterns and mostly
unknown outside collector circles.

Cheers, Bob

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