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In economics, a medium of exchange is any item that is widely acceptable in exchange for goods and services. [1] In modern economies, the most commonly used medium of exchange is currency . Most forms of money are categorised as mediums of exchange, including commodity money , representative money , cryptocurrency , and most commonly fiat money .
A currency [a] is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. [1] [2] A more general definition is that a currency is a system of money in common use within a specific environment over time, especially for people in a nation state. [3]
The other functions are the medium of exchange, which is used as an intermediary to avoid the inconveniences of the coincidence of wants, and the unit of account, which allows the value of various goods, services, assets and liabilities to be rendered in multiples of the same unit.
When money is used to intermediate the exchange of goods and services, it is performing a function as a medium of exchange. It thereby avoids the inefficiencies of a barter system, such as the inability to permanently ensure "coincidence of wants". For example, between two parties in a barter system, one party may not have or make the item that ...
Examples of commodities that have been used as media of exchange include precious metals and stones, grain, animal parts (such as beaver pelts), tobacco, fuel, and others. Sometimes several types of commodity money were used together, with fixed relative values, in various commodity valuation or price system economies.
One by one, colonies began to issue their own paper money to serve as a convenient medium of exchange. On December 10, 1690, [4] the Province of Massachusetts Bay created "the first authorized paper money issued by any government in the Western World". [5] This paper money was issued to pay for a military expedition during King William's War ...
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Shell money is a medium of exchange similar to coin money and other forms of commodity money, and was once commonly used in many parts of the world. [1] Shell money usually consisted of whole or partial sea shells, often worked into beads or otherwise shaped.