Lawful Money

Lawful Money
Any form of currency issued by the United States Treasury and not the Federal Reserve System, including gold and silver coins, Treasury notes, and Treasury bonds. Lawful money stands in contrast to fiat money, to which the government assigns value although it has no intrinsic value of its own and is not backed by reserves. Fiat money includes legal tender such as paper money, checks, drafts and bank notes.

Also known as "specie", which means "in actual form."

Oddly enough, the dollar bills that we carry around in our wallets are not considered lawful money. The notation on the bottom of a U.S. dollar bill reads "Legal Tender for All Debts, Public and Private", and is issued by the U.S. Federal Reserve, not the U.S. Treasury. Legal tender can be exchanged for an equivalent amount of lawful money, but effects such as inflation can change the value of fiat money. Lawful money is said to be the most direct form of ownership, but for purposes of practicality it has little use in direct transactions between parties anymore.


Investment dictionary. . 2012.

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  • lawful money — Money which is a legal tender in payment of debts. See legal tender …   Black's law dictionary

  • lawful money — Money which is a legal tender in payment of debts. See legal tender …   Black's law dictionary

  • lawful money — noun Etymology: Middle English laweful moneye, from laweful + moneye money 1. a. : any money whether coin or currency that may by the laws of a country be circulated as a medium of exchange compare legal tender b. : any money recognized in a… …   Useful english dictionary

  • lawful money — Gold and silver coin of the United States, or paper money which by act of Congress has been made the equivalent of such coin. Bronson v Rodes (US) 7 Wall 229, 19 L Ed 141. See legal tender …   Ballentine's law dictionary

  • lawful money — legal currency …   English contemporary dictionary

  • money — n Money, cash, currency, legal tender, specie, coin, coinage are comparable when they mean pieces of stamped metal or their equivalents issued by a government, or by an authority recognized by the government, to serve as a medium of exchange in… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • Money laundering — is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources.[1] The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote… …   Wikipedia

  • Token money — Token To ken (t[=o] k n), n. [OE. token, taken, AS. t[=a]cen; akin to OFries. t[=e]ken, OS. t[=e]kan, D. teeken, G. zeichen, OHG. Zeihhan, Icel. t[=a]kan, teiken, Sw. tecken, Dan. tegn, Goth. taikns sign, token, gateihan to tell, show, AS. te[… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Current money — Current Cur rent (k?r rent), a. [OE. currant, OF. curant, corant, p. pr. of curre, corre, F. courre, courir, to run, from L. currere; perh. akin to E. horse. Cf. {Course}, {Concur}, {Courant}, {Coranto}.] 1. Running or moving rapidly. [Archaic]… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • hard money — Lawful coined money (as contrasted with paper currency) …   Black's law dictionary

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