It's a question that has become harder to answer, as we use less and less actual cash, says author T.J. Stiles. Today, we cannot walk into a store, plunk down a chunk of gold and buy something. It is not, as the economists say, a generally accepted means of payment.
Money is a thing that everyone is willing to accept for payment for everything else, all the time.
In the Western world, legal-tender paper money was an American innovation. But some paper notes were more successful than others. While many Americans thought gold and silver the only true measure of value, cash-starved Americans were desperate for money of any kind. Now money is largely a unit of account that exists simply because we say it's there. To purchase a copy of the September 2000 issue, click here .