OK then...but when I redeem my money will you pay me in gold for my barrel of crude oil and my sack of coffee?
(I don't drink coffee and I cant refine the crude)..... any commodity can be money..but over time...one becomes the standard......Historically...its always been gold as none-other then Sir Allen Greenspan so aptly understood in 1966! http://www.constitution.org/mon/greenspan_gold.htm (it's a shabby little secret!)
“will you pay me in gold for my barrel of crude oil and my sack of coffee?”
That’s not how currency backing works. You don’t get the oil and coffee yourself.
“any commodity can be money”
No commodity can be money. Commodities are seperate to money. Commodities can back money, but it is not the same as money. We have money so we don’t have to barter commodities.
“over time...one becomes the standard”
Please read my post again. It contains important points that cannot be overridden by a simple argumentum ad antiquitum.