Why does one picece of....

....paper feel just like another, but it's "worth" is more than the first?!?!? Don't get me wrong, but, I am holding a USD $1 and a $50 dollar bill in each hand, and they feel identical, yet, one is worth $49 more than the first?? Maybe this is a political statement and should not be debated here........discuss amongst yourselves.......This is meant to be a comedic post and no one should take offense. If I could buy a $ 50 light with a $1 bill then I will, but I just want to poke fun and see what the community has to say.

one reason why most MODERN currencies bills are all different size and color and design based by their value. they are recognizable by feel.

Why does one picece of....

The famous 20th century Dutch forger Han Van Meegeren was obsessed with a similar question: Why is the work of one artist worth millions when similar works by someone lesser known have nearly no value at all.

Van Meegeren's first (of ten) Vermeer forgeries sold for more money than anyone anywhere had ever paid for any painting up to that time.

Because it's fiat currency. You accept that piece of paper to repay a debt owed to you of $50 because you're confident that a creditor of yours will also accept that piece of paper and will assess it at the same value.

In short, one is worth more than the other because everyone accepts that that's the case, and everyone accepts that that's the case because the Treasury says so.

Paper has no intrinsic value, just like artwork, just like most things. Even gold. It only as much value as you put into it, like LukeA says.

Crenshaw

Time is money. Money is concentrated work.

Crenshaw said:

Paper has no intrinsic value, just like artwork, just like most things. Even gold...

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Emphasis mine.

Gold does have intrinsic value -- all other commodities do, too. If you could go back 150 years a US $20 gold piece would buy you a Colt 45 revolver or a very nice suit -- it still will today. Silver (another commodity) has intrinsic value also. Pre-1965 US dimes are now worth ~$1 each because of the intrinsic value value of the silver that they are made of. US paper money, on the other hand, has been inflated by 1600% just since the end of WWII.

What is a picece? Is that a new currency?

How about two gift cards--both look and feel exactly the same, yet one has no credit left and the other has $1,000 of credit. Only the mag stripe reader knows the difference.

Most of my net worth is in electronic form--it has no physicality at all. I work for years, have a decent amount of money, yet it barely exists--it's electrons that wouldn't turn on a flashlight. Yet, I can convert those electrons into paper currency, if necessary, or change those electrons to some other electrons and get a new car. The only thing that makes it work is that everybody agrees to it. Strange, but it works.

More interesting is how much buying power that $50 note will have in 10 years from now....

mdocod said:

More interesting is how much buying power that $50 note will have in 10 years from now....

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That is a truly scary question. Zimbabwe's currency has inflated ~218 million percent in the last year.

$50 notes will always have some value as paper... If it's dry one might use it to help start a fire. If washed and dried it may have some value as toilet paper...

mdocod said:

More interesting is how much buying power that $50 note will have in 10 years from now....

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The American Dollar, meet the new Peso!

Money and or any form of currency is a construct of society that is a measure of your "Life Energy", sadly as currencies fluctuate downward, your life energy becomes less valuable from a monetary standpoint while your life is no less valuable.

Hold the bill so that it hangs vertically lengthwise, then bring a strong magnet very close to the black-ink side - surprise!

What size bill?

StarHalo said:

Hold the bill so that it hangs vertically lengthwise, then bring a strong magnet very close to the black-ink side - surprise!

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MARNAV1 said:

What size bill?

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I know I have a neodymium magnet somewhere... I have to try this

I'm still trying to figure out if the US currency is even close to how much gold we have.

There's probably a few trillion currency pieces (coins and dollars) more than printed and in circulation than there is gold.

Maybe if we had less currency than we had gold it would be worth more

COINFLATION is a site I go to about once a week. They track coin trends and if you scroll down a bit on the home page there are two Intrinsic Value Tables for US coins.

"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value --- zero." Voltaire (1694-1778)

Search said:

I'm still trying to figure out if the US currency is even close to how much gold we have.

There's probably a few trillion currency pieces (coins and dollars) more than printed and in circulation than there is gold.

Maybe if we had less currency than we had gold it would be worth more

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From what I have found briefly on the net, the Gold Standard died in 1933 so I feel more than safe in saying that we only have a fraction of actual gold in relation to our currency especially when calculated with inflation.

Ever wonder why you see all of those "Trade In Your Gold For Cash" Ads, somebody is making a killing!!!

Sub_Umbra said:

COINFLATION is a site I go to about once a week. They track coin trends and if you scroll down a bit on the home page there are two Intrinsic Value Tables for US coins.

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Thanks for that. Have a few older coins and now I have a rough idea.