VALUE OF NOTES 
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doubtful heap of metal which may or may not amount 
to what he says it does, he is able to offer a certificate 
or note which will entitle the holder who accepts it 
to something much more definite : all that is required 
is that the certificate or note should be made out in 
such a form that banding it over from one person to 
another—deliverv +11 transfer the ownership of the 
certified quan* money, and the certificate is 
then an actual’ tum of exchange than the 
coin itself, and = metorelly a demand for 
it, it becomes sre jt is“ paper 
currency.” 
But even if the coinage is above reproach, a demand 
for paper currency can scarcely fail to arise. To keep 
a large amount of money in coin is to keep a bulky 
article which offers peculiar attraction to thieves on 
account of its retcining its value when it has 
lost its form, so that it cannot be identified. It is 
natural that any man who has no convenient 
strong-room will wish to deposit any considerable sum 
in some safe place and take a receipt for it; as one 
good coin is as good as another, he will not ask the 
person with whom he deposits the coin to promise to 
give him back the actual coins deposited—a promise 
to pay ““ the sum ” deposited will suffice. Provided 
the written promise is in such a form that handing it 
over will transfer the owner’s claim on the person who 
has the coin to the new holder, it is evident that when 
the owner wants to make a large payment he will do 
well to hand over the promise instead of fetching out 
the coin from deposit, and the person whom he is 
paying will do well to aceon’ .. Tt will clearly be 
convenient in view of sur ~--sit'lirles *hat the 
person with whom ‘he « ~ ~ 7 7’? make 
out his promises ‘=~ ‘100, 
and so on, SO tla. wove 2er to 
make un anv parties’. hig is