Token money

[3] A banknote, e.g. a five-pound note, is token money because despite its value being 5 pounds it only costs significantly less to produce.

[3] The token money system has been adopted in many businesses around the world as an effective way to exchange value between companies and customers.

[7] In Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, copper coins were used for small transactions and were issued a monetary value greater than the value of the metal itself.

In the early nineteenth century, David Ricardo suggested issuing token money as long as it did not affect commodity standard.

The cost of production of token money is less than its actual value, for example with convertible currency, collector notes, souvenirs, coupons, some retired US banknotes and per 1986 banknotes printed in regulation size and only on one side with authorization are actually worth more dollars than when issued.