From: "Tim May" <tcmay@got.net>

Nearly all forms of money are more like IOUs than any other single description.

Right.

With British money it is the Bank of England (so I hear, but maybe it has changed to some sort of U.K. reference) that says "Anyone who presents this IOU for 10 pounds will be given either another IOU for the same amount or will be, sometimes, given gold or silver."

Wrong. I can do this - I can write IOUs "redeemable" in other IOUs or, "sometimes", in gold or silver. The reason the IOUs emitted by the Bank of England were *initially* accepted was that they were redeemable in gold or silver. *One* reason they are now accepted is that they are legal tender - you can pay your taxes with them, and companies are forbidden from accepting them as payment. Mark