A currency (from Middle English curraunt, meaning in circulation) refers to money in any form when in actual use or circulation, as a medium of exchange, especially circulating paper money. This use is synonymous with banknotes, or (sometimes) with banknotes plus coins, meaning the physical tokens used for money by a government.
A somewhat more general definition in economics is that a currency is a system of money (monetary units) in common use, especially in a nation. Under this definition, British pounds, U.S. dollars, and European euros are different types of currency, or currencies. Currencies in this definition need not be physical objects, but as stores of value are subject to trading between nations in foreign exchange markets, which determine the relative values of the different currencies. Currencies in the sense used by foreign exchange markets, are defined by governments, and each type has limited boundaries of acceptance.
An even more general use of the word currency is anything that is used in any circumstances as a medium of exchange. In this use currency is a synonym for the concept of money.
Read more about Currency: Modern Currencies, Control and Production, Currency Convertibility, Local Currencies, Proposed Currencies
Famous quotes containing the words money and/or currency:
““Give me the resurrection of the body!” said Dukes. “But it’ll come in time, when we’ve shoved the cerebral stone away a bit, the money and the rest. Then we’ll get a democracy of touch, instead of a democracy of pocket.””
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“There is no legislation—I care not what it is—tariff, railroads, corporations, or of a general political character, that all equals in importance the putting of our banking and currency system on the sound basis proposed in the National Monetary Commission plan.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)