Perhaps it is nit-picking but no private person could call his production “money” since it would not have to be universally accepted as anything other than an object of value. Nor is foreign exchange true “money” for exchange.
The Dixie story is an interesting one isn’t it?
I don't follow. Private individuals have issued money and have had it universally accepted. Usually private money contained gold or silver but not always. Token money issued by button makers fueled the early industrial revolution - see Good Money by George Selgin. There is a great story in Selgin's book about how the Chancellor of England was outraged at being asked to pay double by a Manchester merchant when he tried to pay with English money. Nine out of ten English coins were counterfeit at the time. The local merchants in places like Manchester and Birmingham preferred the local factory tokens because they knew they could exchange them in bulk for gold.