Re:backing

Greshams law: "bad money drives out good"

Yes, but the money changers in Moscow are fairly busy converting bad money to good. Certainly, people will spend the bad money as soon as they get it, so it circulates more, but for long term storage (which in Russia could mean a few weeks at the rate of inflation they have (was in the quadrillions annually a few months ago)), the higher quality money is used. Paul E. Baclace peb@procase.com