[53331] in Cypherpunks
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daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perry E. Metzger)
Sat Apr 6 12:09:08 1996
To: James Gleick <gleick@around.com>
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 06 Apr 1996 01:03:12 EST."
<2.2.32.19960406060312.006d58c0@pop3.interramp.com>
Reply-To: perry@piermont.com
Date: Sat, 06 Apr 1996 11:46:32 -0500
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Incidently....
James Gleick writes:
> >Seignorage is neither of these things. It is the difference between
> >the cost of producing a currency token (like a quarter or a dollar
> >bill) and the face value of the token. In essense, its the profit
> >margin on printing or minting money.
>
> You're giving a definition straight from a dictionary--an old
> one. Welcome to the modern world.
The definition I use is *still* totally current. One concern when
doing things like switching from dollar bills to dollar coins or
altering printing processes in paper money is a change in seignorage
because of a change in production cost of the currency tokens.
Perry
