> -----Original Message----- > From: Philip Hart [mailto:philiph at slac.stanford.edu] > > On Wed, 28 Apr 2004, Paul Echeverri wrote: > > > On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 18:19:44 -0700 (PDT), rone <rone at ennui.org> wrote: > > > > > Sunny Han writes: > > > The dragearean system can't be fiat tho, isn't it actually backed by > > > gold? > > > > A fiat system can be backed by gold if each unit of account is backed by > > less than a unit of account's worth of gold. If each paper dollar is > > redeemable for twenty cents' worth of gold, there's eighty fiat cents in > > the dollar. A fifty-Imperial piece does not, and cannot, mass > fifty times > > what the one-Imperial piece does -- therefore, a fifty-imperial coin has > > some amount of fiat Imperials in it of necessity. It's worth fifty > > Imperials because the Empire says it is, not because the metal > in the coin > > says so. > > > What if the largest denomination weighs a gram, and is pure gold, while > the smallest weighs a gram, and is 1% gold? > > Then you are stuck with what the seller (of what you are buying) thinks its worth, and the more the better. W Economics: putting words to what everyone else does automatically.