Currency money or book money, which are fiat money. Currency money Currency money is money in full circulation that takes its value from the precious metal it contains, that is, its market value is (almost) the value of the metal it contains (apart from the Seigniorage or the minters' profit), though this is always overcompensated for in coins and banknotes from a country undergoing debasement. Currency money is usually made of silver or gold, but in very rare cases plated metal and even copper may be used. Currency money is commodity money, as opposed to coins whose metal value is less than
A Monetary History of the United States bank failures and the massive withdrawals of currency from the financial system that followed significantly shrank the money supply (the total amount of currency and outstanding bank deposits), which greatly exacerbated the economic contraction. The book criticizes the Federal Reserve Bank for not keeping the supply of money steady and not acting as lender of last resort, instead allowing commercial banks to fail and allowing the economic depression to deepen. The book's main theme is the "money supply". It tracks this through three numbers: The money supply (cash + deposits) can be computed from these three numbers. The supply shrinks