Fiat Money
Fiat Money is money whose intrinsic value is minuscule (unlike, say, gold coins), but which has been declared by a government to have value as legal tender for all debts within the nation that issues the currency or coin. Fiat currency is problematic, even in an honest system, because it requires a strict overseeing operation to ensure that none of it is put into circulation at face value illicitly.
In a fiat monetary system the central bank is empowered to obtain the printed notes at the cost of production and then issue them into the money supply of the nation at face value (by exchanging them for reserve deposits of the authorized requesting commercial bank). It must also retain the reserve funds received in the exchange as collateral. This collateral is ultimately needed to redeem the cash being returned by a commercial bank for credit to its reserve account at the central bank. Upon the return of cash to the central bank, the face value is credited to the reserve account of the submitting bank, and the collateral account at the central bank (a liability account) is debited by that amount. At this point the returned notes have, by law, an accounting value of $0 on the central bank's books. The central bank then places the paper notes returned in good condition in a vault for a later demand and destroys those in bad condition. There is no profit made by the central bank as this scenario plays out.
For the case of the United States' fiat-money system this is verified in the following quotation from http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/currency/pages/legal-tender.aspx
Federal Reserve notes [herein called FRNs] are legal tender currency notes. The twelve Federal Reserve Banks issue them into circulation pursuant to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. A commercial bank belonging to the Federal Reserve System can obtain Federal Reserve notes from the Federal Reserve Bank in its district whenever it wishes. It must pay for them in full, dollar for dollar, by drawing down its [reserve] account with its district Federal Reserve Bank.
Federal Reserve Banks obtain FR notes from our Bureau of Engraving and Printing [BEP]. It pays the BEP for the cost of producing the notes, which then become liabilities of the Federal Reserve Banks, and obligations of the United States government.
Congress has specified that a Federal Reserve bank must hold collateral equal in value to the Federal Reserve notes that the bank receives. This collateral is chiefly gold certificates and United States securities. This provides backing for the note issue. The idea was that if the Congress dissolved the Federal Reserve system, the United States would take over the notes (liabilities). This would meet the requirements of Section 411, but the government would also take over the assets, which would be of equal value. Federal Reserve notes represent a first lien on all the assets of the Federal Reserve banks, and on the collateral specifically held against them.
This article will show how each transaction in the journey of FRNs from the cradle to the grave alters the balance sheet of each of the agencies involved in each transaction.
Some folks discussing money on the www think that the Federal Reserve pockets the seigniorage on transfer of FRNs from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to the member commercial banks of the Federal Reserve. It will be shown that there is no such profit made in the process.
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