Cash retail
20Share of everyday retail still leaning on notes and coins (relative score).
Gold · The metal that defined monetary standards from antiquity through Bretton Woods.
Circulation is legal and practical: where Gold is tender, where it is accepted, and where it is merely a parallel unit.
Cash shares of payments vary widely; some societies are nearly cashless while others still settle wages and retail in notes.
Primary legal-tender area where taxes and courts use Gold.
Neighbours and visitors may accept it informally beside local cash.
Banks outside the core territory book liabilities in this unit.
Trade contracts may price goods in this unit even when neither party is local.
Migrant workers send home value that often converts through this FX market.
Earlier gold, sterling or dollar pegs left institutional memory.
Float, managed float, currency board or hard peg — see FX chapter for role.
How freely residents buy foreign assets shapes effective convertibility.
Share of everyday retail still leaning on notes and coins (relative score).
Card schemes and mobile wallets dominate in many cities.
Account-to-account instant payments grow inside the currency area.
Wholesale payments settle in central-bank money.