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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 12831, member: 57463&quot;]In the topic, Counterfeits, satootoko wrote:</p><p>&quot;Fantasies are coins produced for other purposes, including non-existent governments (Sealand for example), throwing from floats during Mardi Gras parades, unofficially issued proposals for real coins, advertising tokens of all sorts, etc.</p><p>&quot;Notgeld. Even though this German word literally means &quot;emergency money&quot;, it makes a good category title for semi-official monetary issues, often put out by cities, provinces, etc.; but also by private parties, to assuage shortages in official currency/coins. Conder Tokens, Hard Times Tokens, children&#039;s game coins, gambling tokens, and similar coins fall in this category. They are &quot;fake&quot; because they are not &quot;money&quot;, even though they often perform the function of money.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>This raises several important questions about how we define things in numismatics.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>It is a common &quot;default value&quot; in numismatics that we call &quot;money&quot; only those issues of &quot;governments&quot; (however defined).&nbsp; Yet, as satootoko points out, so-called non-money objects do, indeed, perform the function of money.&nbsp; If something performs the function of money, then why is it _not_ money?</p><p><br /></p><p>Apply the same standard, say, to education or healthcare or (most recently in the news) space travel.&nbsp; Are only public schools real schools, with private schools being &quot;non-schools that perform the function of schools&quot;? Is Rutan&#039;s SpaceShipOne, a &quot;non-rocket that performs the function of a rocket&quot; just because it did not come from a government?</p><p><br /></p><p>And what is a &quot;government&quot;?&nbsp; Satootoko cited Sealand.&nbsp; Sealand, Hutt River Principality, and other micronations are as valid as any other state.&nbsp; The Vatican has only a few hundred actual citizens and perhaps 1500 other &quot;guest workers.&quot;&nbsp; We recognize the Vatican as a legitimate government -- Euros and all; Pope speaks to the U.N.; etc. -- but we deny this to other micronations.&nbsp; Why?</p><p><br /></p><p>I have read once through each, two books by E. C. Riegel, The New Approach to Freedom and Flight From Inflation.&nbsp; Riegel makes a strong case to show that in terms of pure accounting, money is only created when a buyer accepts a seller&#039;s offer.&nbsp; Riegel goes on to show that strictly speaking by definition governments really do _NOT_ create money, only money-like objects that perform the function of money when used by persons.</p><p><br /></p><p>Hard Times Tokens, Conders, scrip, the entire matrix of commercial counters are within the context of numismatics.&nbsp; They are all money.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mardi Gras Doubloons and other fantasies are in a different class entirely. (Some Mardi Gras Doubloons are, in fact money objects because they are -- on rare occasions -- tokens, good-fors. ) </p><p><br /></p><p>I have been involved in a &quot;community currency&quot; project here in Traverse City, Michigan.&nbsp; About 30 cities have their own local currencies, and in every case I have researched, these are created by non-government associations of participating individuals and businesses.&nbsp; In the Riegel model, these people create money with their transactions and use these community currencies as their preferred accounting tools.</p><p><br /></p><p>As a numismatist, I consider checks, drafts, stock certificates, banknotes, coins, and all the rest to be equally valid as forms of money.&nbsp; Some of these I have collected with more interest and some not at all.&nbsp; My &quot;aesthetics of economics&quot; (if you will) does not define money, only my preferences for studying some of it.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions?</p><p><br /></p><p>Michael[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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