Your Money Dictionary

Your money dictionary is a guide to numerous useful money definitions. The purpose of this site is to provide valuable information to professionals, students, and anyone needing financial information or advice. Everything related to credit cards and ratings, home mortgages and the different types, stock market terms and financial slang, and even money advice for seniors or new home owners. If you want to exchange links please visit our partners page and enter your information!

The definition of money

Money is any type of token or good utilized by society as a tangible medium of exchange and unit of account. Without money, trading would simply be bartering for commodities. Bartering can be inefficient because the wants and needs of the traders does not always match. ‘Tokens’ or coins and bills are useful in anyone’s life because it allows people to choose what they want to purchase. Ironically money is any token that is virtually useless in everyday life (ie gold and silver coins). Commodity money was the very first form of money to appear in history. Objects were used as money in order to make transactions simpler in a barter type society – this eventually became a store of value where perishable goods could be converted to long lasting money. In contemporary economies commodity money is used as a unit of account. Currency back by gold is the most common form of commodity money. Fiat money is a newer concept in which the government creates new money without any inherent value or gold backing. Parts of this definition were gleaned from Wikipedia.com!