To prevent such abuses, . . . it has been found
necessary . . . to affix a public stamp upon certain
quantities of such particular metals, as were in
those countries commonly made use of to purchase
goods. Hence the origin of coined money, and of
those public offices called mints. --A. Smith.
2. Any written or stamped promise, certificate, or order, as
a government note, a bank note, a certificate of deposit,
etc., which is payable in standard coined money and is
lawfully current in lieu of it; in a comprehensive sense,
any currency usually and lawfully employed in buying and
selling.
Note: Whatever, among barbarous nations, is used as a medium
of effecting exchanges of property, and in the terms of
which values are reckoned, as sheep, wampum, copper
rings, quills of salt or of gold dust, shovel blades,
etc., is, in common language, called their money.
3. In general, wealth; property; as, he has much money in
land, or in stocks; to make, or lose, money.
The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
--1 Tim vi. 10
(Rev. Ver. ).