The Crypto Winter

[Tim May]

On Monday, November 19, 2001, at 05:03 PM, David Honig wrote:
>
> Yes, but what this thread has ignored is that gold (and other
> densely precious things) were valued *in and of themselves* and so
> using them as money was not symbolic.  You traded your goat
> for a goat's worth of gold; if trust evaporated overnight
> the gold is still worth something.

Not really. It was still a matter of belief that that gold coin, or gold 
nugget, would be worth something.

"In and of itself" is a very vague and intangible concept.

--Tim May
"As my father told me long ago, the objective is not to convince someone
  with your arguments but to provide the arguments with which he later
  convinces himself." -- David Friedman