Money is held to serve multiple distinguished but related functions, of which a "standard of deferred payment" is one.
When it is not, or when complex and volatile forms of financial capital are involved, some may wish to identify a single standard of deferred payment to avoid strategic behavior.
For certain kinds of transactions (such as for illegal goods like drugs or weapons), gold or diamonds may be preferred as the medium of exchange — there being no recourse in case of counterfeit currency being used — and there is rarely any deferral of payment: if there is, it will most likely be stated in dollars.
[citation needed] Historically, there have been many times when creditors have had to hide from debtors to avoid being paid off in near worthless currency, typically following hyper-inflation.
[citation needed] Time-based currency such as Ithaca Hours establishes fixed amounts of human labour as the only standard of deferred payment.