| Any commodity could be held. If we look back half a century in the US, the commodity held was gold. Or rather, federal reserve notes redeemable for gold. Gold makes a good currency as it has the properties of a commodity that makes a good currency. It is durable, divisible, uniform, and portable. Federal reserve notes a half century ago were even more portable. You could mark the bills or write down serial numbers and make the bills difficult to use if stolen. If torn, the Federal Reserve would issue you new bills. Money or currency historically has been a commodity that had the above mentioned properties (durable, divisible, uniform, portable), so that it is convenient for trade. Really any commodity could be held to store value, although some store value worse than others (perishable food is not exactly durable). When you get into very large sums which you may want to transfer around the world in a split second, you run into more of a problem of course. |