Card money
Card money is a interesting fiat invention. A type of fiat money printed on playing cards!
Fancy a game of cards?
It was used in New France (a vast area now covering much of the US and Canada) during the days of colonial expansion into the Americas.
The administration of New France counted on the arrival of cash from France in order to pay civil servants, suppliers, soldiers and clerks. There was confusion if the ship did not arrive until the end of the season, and even more if it did not come at all. In 1685, Intendant Jacques de Meulles invented a type of paper money with the purpose of meeting the expenses. He printed various face values on playing cards and affixed his seal to them. When the king’s ship arrived, he redeemed this “card money” in cash.
This highlights the importance of fast cross-border settlement that Bitcoin allows for.
Pretty cool, but ultimately still a shit coin.
Card money was not the only form of paper money of course, an estimated 5500 different types of paper money were issued in New France during 1790 and 1793 alone.
How confusing would it be to run a business with 5500 different notes flying around?
This highlights how useful it is for money to be fungible. 1 sat = 1 sat.
According to Wikipedia, counterfeiters could be caned, branded, flogged, or even hanged - but the incentive was too strong and counterfeiting was a problem with this currency.
Now try counterfeiting Bitcoin and see how far you get...
However it was inflation that ultimately led to the decline of card money.
This highlights in a playful way how important is is for money to be limited in supply, and not just a political tool to be printed at will.
Hard supply cap, anyone?
sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_France
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_money#:~:text=Card%20money%20is%20a%20type,to%20the%20early%2019th%20century.
https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/capitalism/radical-object-billets-de-confiance/
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/playing-card-money