Re: Sci & Tech of Future Crime

Wasn't it Mad Bad Rabbit who wrote:
Mike Williams wrote:

There'll probably always be some untraceable commodity
that can be used as a medium of exchange, such as gold
or diamonds.

There's an interesting article on this subject:

http://www.rfreitas.com/Nano/TangibleNanomoney.htm

which compares gold with the other elements, antimatter, etc.
as possible forms of uncopyable money.

There was a short period of time when some international banks used
coconuts as money when no other suitable medium of exchange could be
found. International law made it illegal to transfer currency or bullion
into or out of Uganda. The bank that I worked for continued to balance
its Ugandan payments by arranging for truckloads of coconuts to drive
back and forth across the border of a neighbouring country. The contents
of the trucks were "bought" and "sold" at each end of the trip as
required, but not unloaded from the trucks.

During WW2, notes and coins were of little use to prisoners of war,
because they could not be spent. The economy of the PoW camps ran on
cigarettes.

Whenever the normal system of trading with money breaks down, some other
medium of exchange will be found to fill the gap.

--
Mike Williams
Gentleman of Leisure
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Silver Bullion
    ... Why modern men want to hold gold and silver: ... The usual definitions of the function of money are that money is a ... medium of exchange, a measure of value, a standard of deferred payment, ...
    (rec.collecting.coins)
  • Re: The need for a real, regular money
    ... it is a medium of exchange. ...  We take the money (paper, ... legitimate "claims on production". ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: Survivalist Types
    ... becoming the local medium of exchange until a government is started. ... as gold, it doesn't rust or tarnish, 5000 year old gold is still gold, ... it and use it just like money. ... silver in exchange for a round. ...
    (misc.survivalism)
  • Re: Survivalist Types
    ... I have no interest in your gold, and the silver is no more valuable to ... I'll take gold and silver in exchange, ... it is a local gold coin. ... And I have seem plenty of money, so a counterfeit would have to be good ...
    (misc.survivalism)
  • Re: Long article on the dollar -- but worth reading
    ... Since we don't have anything simple nowadays that generally represents wealth, ... Gold achieved popularity as a medium of exchange because it was relatively easy to detect forgery or counterfeiting. ... Gold and other precious items used in past as media of exchange indeed possessed some variable intrinsic 'value', and were a physical representation of 'wealth', but that property was secondary to their primary function, which was as a medium of exchange. ...
    (soc.retirement)