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It took a long time for people to accept paper (and some are still bitching about it as we see here).

No one, to my knowledge, is objecting to fiduciary paper currency -just to fiat currency. In fact, most of the gold people are perfectly in favor of over issuance of this paper - as long as holders can redeem. I, OTOH, have more rigid requirements before I'm happy.

PLEASE POST A LINK TO THE ECONOMIST ARTICLE OR GIVE THE TITLE

It is a series of articles in the December 1 issue in a special section (13 pages) entitled: A survey of European business and the euro. As I recall The Economist is rather jealous of its copyright and I would therefore not post or mirror the article here.

I, OTOH, have more rigid requirements before I'm happy.

Are you telling me that if you showed up at a dealership with $25,000 worth of gold (consider the implications of that piece of syntax) that the dealer wouldn't take it? Sure they would, after converting the gold to dollars and discounting it for their hassle and the poor performance of gold. Thus you are quite free to carry gold coins or paper certificates, the problem is you'll have to sell them at a discount.

I OTOH might be quite happy with a note on a basket of bonds with a good record of appreciation. Some people might pay me a premium for my notes based upon their perception of the value. They might not therefore need 100% reserve-backing based upon that particular transaction because the reserve amount need only be the value of the note.

Pooled risk has NEVER operated on 100% reserve backing. That is why it is a valuable capital allocation and risk management service.