ˈpaper ˌmoney
[paper n. 1, 3.]
Negotiable documents used instead of money, esp. bank-notes, passing unquestioned from hand to hand; more strictly, a paper currency, which by the law of the country represents money and is a legal tender.
| [Cf. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxv. 117 He [the Grete Caan] makez na monee but owþer of lether or of papire.] 1691 C. Mather Consid. Bills Credit in A. M. Davis Tracts (1902) 13, I therefore cannot a little wonder at the great indiscretion of our Countrymen who Refuse to accept that, which they call Paper-Mony, as pay of equal value with the best Spanish Silver. a 1697 H. Pollexfen Disc. Trade A. 5 We have improved Paper Credit, and turn'd it into Paper-Money, by giving Notes and Bills the privilege of a new Specie of Coin, and using them for making of most great payments. Ibid. A. 4 For promoting the sending of Silver Money abroad, and using Paper Money at home. 1735 Berkeley Querist §219 Whether the abuse of banks and paper-money is a just objection against the use thereof? 1776 Adam Smith W.N. ii. ii. (1869) I. 291 There are several different sorts of paper money; but the circulating notes of banks and bankers are the species which is best known. 1821 in Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) I. 35 The desolating and damnable system of paper-money. 1880 Bon. Price in Fraser's Mag. May 669 What is real paper money? The answer is, banknotes. They are written promises by a bank or Government to pay a certain quantity of coin to the bearer on demand. |
| attrib. 1740 W. Douglas Disc. Curr. Brit. Plant. Amer. 19 We see..in our Paper Money Colonies, the Currencies have incredibly depreciated from Sterling. 1823 in Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) I. 268 To put an end to the gains of the paper-money people. 1828 P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 93 [Each] has charged about the same paper-money price for his articles. |