Why do U.S. banknotes have "Federal Reserve Note" written on them, but not coins? U.S. coins only have "United States of America" as the demonym. Why not "Federal Reserve" for both?
Federal Reserve notes are issued by the Federal Reserve, Coins are issued by the United States government, not the same thing or the same entity.
Kudos to you, @mlov43, for making me Google the definition of "demonym" ;-) I must ask for clarification, though, because it looks like that word technically means: "a noun used to denote the natives or inhabitants of a particular country, state, city, etc." Thus, "American" would be a demonym, but not "United States of America". I am happy to be corrected here and trying not to be the grammar police... just happy to learn something today (one way or the other!).
Is this because of "central bank independence?" As an "independent" institution, Federal Reserve is the issuing authority for banknotes, but while the Mint is NOT independent, therefore the Mint issues coins on behalf of the U.S. Govt. Is this right?
Well, I thought "Federal Reserve Note" or "USA" is kind of like the "ethnic" on ancient coins (if you're one of THEM). Another name for ethnic is demonym. We had a conversation about this before here at CT (page 5 of this thread: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/wh...t-the-usual-athens.322018/page-5#post-3175885 ).
There were "United States Notes" issued for a short period of time in denominations of $2, $5, and $100. But, since the Federal Reserve issues notes today, they are called Federal Reserve Notes.
That is correct. The BEP prints the notes but they are just so much paper until the Federal Reserve purchases them at face value. At that point the seigniorage profit is entered into the general fund. Then when they issue them they become an obligation of the Federal Reserve not the US Government. Coins on the other hand are considered money from the moment they are struck. Seigniorage profit is credited to the general fund and even if the coins are just placed in storage they are considered an asset and obligation of the United States.
Well, all FRNs do say "The United States of America" on them. I would say that's the thing that corresponds to the ethnic on an ancient coin.
Because that is who they make them for. Bank of England does currency for the UK. European Central Bank issues notes for the EU, etc.
