Private Currency

Everybody wants ‘em, but nobody’s got ‘em: Schrute Bucks...one of the world’s most stable private currencies.

Private currencies are, unlike fiat currencies (backed by a government), private. That means a group, company, or individual is issuing them. Like regular ol’ currencies, private currencies are a medium of exchange. They only work if people believe in them. Like, uh...fairies.

It was common for fiat currencies to be backed by gold and/or silver many decades ago. The idea was that people could, in theory, turn in their hard-earned dollars for bars of gold and silver, a promise by the government. Nobody really did this, but the idea was that there was something real and valuable tied to those pieces of paper we call “dollars.” Otherwise, why would people take those pieces of paper seriously? Plus, it helped with inflation, pegging dollars to a valued good.

Many fiat currencies have done away with the hard commodity backing of gold and silver. The modern economy just...trusts money. At least for now. Private currencies though are usually on a much smaller scale, so there’s less trust that those pieces of paper are worth something.

It’s no surprise then that private currencies often do back themselves with physical commodities: gold, silver...maybe even beets.

Careful though...dealing in private currency could get you in trouble. Check your laws...federal, local, all of them. Besides Schrute Bucks, some private currencies can be found in Hong Kong and the UK. Also, online: cryptocurrencies are kind of private, just because they’re not fiat. Private, yet decentralized.