The interesting part is, the color choice of the new paper currencies is very similar to the “hell money” used by Chinese. As part of Chinese’s tradition, these “hell money” is burned to their late ancestors.
A person can spend few Ringgit to buy Millions, Billions and even Trillions worth of the “hell money” notes. The reason why few Ringgit can buy few Billions worth of “hell money” is because the “hell money” can be printed at a very low cost. So, this started to ring a question… What is the difference between the “hell money” and the paper currencies issued by Bank Negara Malaysia?
Fundamentally, both of these money are printed by machines. Both of of these money do not have real monetary value in it – it is merely a “belief”. When it comes to paper currencies, Mike Maloney accurately pointed out “we are all dreaming the same dream“, dreaming that the paper is money.
This new RM20 note is intentionally damaged by someone. If more parts of the paper currency is being damaged as such, I wonder if this piece of paper would still carry the value of RM20. Realistically, if the new paper currency of RM20 is being used for the next 10 years, that is exactly what is going to happen to the paper note.
When that happens, do you think the paper currency note is so rare that Bank Negara will need to refurbish the paper currency and re-use it? No! Bank Negara will simply print more paper currency – they have the “authority” to do it very quickly and very cheaply. Print! Print! Print! By the way, who gave Bank Negara such ”authority” to create money and de-valuate all the other paper currencies in Malaysia? Some people call it creating inflation? Hmm….
Now let’s look at physical silver:
Now let’s look at physical silver:
Physical silver CANNOT be “printed” by Bank Negara. In order to produce 1 oz of silver, it take a lot time, a lot of effort and it costs a lot of money. This is the form of honest money that represents a storage of value because Bank Negara cannot print physical silver and de-valuate the value.
When a paper note is damaged, Bank Negara will response with “Never mind, we will print some new ones…”; when physical silver is found after a long lost, it goes into international news. It is being dug up even when it is at the bottom of the ocean:
Example 1 - 200 Tons of Silver Found on WWII Ship
Example 2 - 17 Tonnes of Silver Found Hidden at Puri Math
Paper currencies can be manipulated anytime. Silver is a form of precious metal that has limited supply and it has been used as form of monetary metal for thousands of years. I’m not sure about you, for me physical silver seems to be much more valuable than paper currencies.
The fact is, the Ringgit is “paper currency” while silver is “real money”. For the past 41 years, since 1971, US Dollar is totally off the gold standard, the whole world (yes, including you and me) has been brain washed to believe that paper currency is money. No! Paper currency is NOT money!
Currency has the following characteristic:
- medium of exchange
- a unit of account
- portable
- divisible
- durable
- fungible
Money is:
- all the characteristic of currency.
- storage of value.
