What Is Commodity Money?
Melt a gold coin and you still have gold; burn a paper note and the value is gone.
Video coming soon. The lesson video will appear here once it is published on YouTube.
Check yourself: sample questions
Think about each question, pick what you would answer if you like, then select “Show answer” to see the solution and why. Nothing is graded or sent to us. Example numbers are worked examples, not predictions.
1.What is commodity money?
Melt a gold coin and you still have gold; burn a paper note and the value is gone.
2.Which is NOT one of the three jobs of money?
Commodity money does all three, and brings its own value along.
3.In the made-up example, 10 fish buy 2 silver coins and shoes cost 2 coins. What does the coin change?
One trade becomes two simple ones, and nobody has to want your fish.
Full course: 5 more questions for this lesson
The full course unlocks all self-check questions of all 365 lessons, the daily plan, your progress and the printable learning record. Lessons 1 to 7 are completely free.
See the full course Start the free week
Already bought? Open the course on this device
Sources (6)
- Federal Reserve Education: Functions of Money
- Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Economic Commentary 2015-06: Paper Money and Inflation in Colonial America (Owen F. Humpage, 13. May 2015)
- Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Economic Commentary: Island Money (Michael F. Bryan, 1. February 2004)
- Eigene Rechenbeispiele (synthetisch)
- Peter Gainsford (Klassischer Philologe): Salt and salary: were Roman soldiers paid in salt? (Kiwi Hellenist, January 2017)
- David Wilton: Wordorigins.org, Eintrag 'salary'
Related lessons
Education only. Not financial advice.