THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

mentioning the most recently prevailing forms of money, such as
paper, gold, silver or bronze, Glyn Davies created a Full money
alphabet with a small selection of objects that served as symbolic of
value: amber, beads, cowries, drums, eggs, Feathers, gongs, hoes,
ivory, jade, kettles, leather, mats, nails, oxen, pigs, quartz, rice, salt,
thimbles, umiaks, wampums, yarns and zappozats, which are
decorated axes.
Interestingly, a simple thought experiment can separate the aura of
money from any or all these things. Let us assume that you are
stranded alone on a deserted island. If, when you were left stranded,
you had a thing in your pocket say a knife that knife will still be
useful as a knife on your island.
Now, you may take with you a million dollars in money in this
fantasy! and you may have it in any form you like: cash, a cashier's
cheque, credit cards, gold bars, Swiss francs, even any of the forms of
the above money alphabet that strike your fancy. Whatever Form you
choose, on your island that money changes into paper, plastic, metal
or whatever else, but it has ceased to be money.
Events in recent decades have further made evident the nonmaterial
nature of money. In 1971, the United States ceased to define
the value of the dollar in terms of gold. Since that time, the dollar has
represented a promise from the US government to redeem the dollar
with another dollar. At least when the dollar was backed with gold,
we could more easily believe it had some objective value. With the
demise of the dollar-gold equivalency, such self-deception has
become more difficult.
For another analogy of money and magic - no magician's routine is
complete without a disappearing act. Money has been performing
this feat in a rather spectacular way. Once upon a time, when money
was mostly gold and silver coins, banks started issuing pieces of