currency debasement
Cheapening the coinage
Currency debasement is the reduction of a currency's intrinsic value, historically by lowering the precious metal content in coins while maintaining their face value.
Governments debased currency to stretch limited supplies of gold or silver, effectively creating money from nothing.
The term now applies to any deliberate cheapening of money, including excessive printing that causes inflation: Critics accused the central bank of currency debasement through quantitative easing.
- paper moneyCurrency in bill form
- printing pressMechanical text reproduction device
- clippingPiece cut out
- inflationSustained price level increase
- central bankingState management of currency
quantitative easing · devaluation · fiscal discipline · shaving · fiscal deficit · sweating · base metal · money supply · denarius · adulteration · social unrest · Roman · wheelbarrow · capital flight · dilution · purchasing · coinage · printing
- Roman CrisisValerian, usurpers, civil wars, political instability, imperial succession
- European FinanceBank of England, London Stock Exchange, European Central Bank, euro, Frankfurt Stock Exchange
- fallen empiresRoman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Ottoman Empire, Soviet Union, British Empire
- inflationinflation, CPI, price hikes, hyperinflation, cost-push inflation
currency debasementsound money
Fiscally stable legal tender
hard money · gold standard · price stability · fiscal responsibility · deflation