| |
Unique Home Furniture, Home Decorating and Home Decoration Store
Yellow Money Cowrie: The shell of the cowrie, of which there are about 160 living species, is well-known for its highly glossed finish, smooth and rounded contours, and brightly hued color patterns. The small yellow money cowrie (Cypraea moneta) was for many centuries used as a form of money in Africa and southern Asia. It also played an important part in religious rites and was used as a symbol of fertility and life. The four-inch-long golden cowrie is a particularly choice collector's item because of its comparative rarity and unusual orange-cream color. It lives in the reefs of the Central Pacific from the Philippines to the Fiji Islands, but only in the latter area is it worn around the necks of native chiefs as a sign of high rank or royalty.
The printing of paper money appeared to be the only practical choice, so in February 1862, Congress authorized an issue of $150 million of U. S. notes. These notes were also known as "legal tenders" and were popularly called "greenbacks" because they were printed in green ink, in contrast to the backs of gold certificates, which were printed in yellow.
The greenbacks were the first paper money issued by the U. S. government. They were fiat money, since their only backing was the government's promise to pay. But they were legal tender for all debts, public and private, except interest on the public debt and customs duties.
GRESHAM'S LAW, gresh'amz, in economics, is usually stated as "bad money drives out good." The law stems from the fact that money has a value both as money and as a commodity in the open market. The former value is set arbitrarily by law and is relatively fixed; the latter is determined by supply and demand and varies from time to time, "Good money" has a higher value as a commodity than as money and will disappear from circulation.
|
|
|
 |
Child-Education-Usa.com |
|
 |
 |
|
Menu |
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
