From gold to futurity: a semiotic overview on trust, legal tender and fiat money

ABSTRACT

In the first part of the paper, I am summarizing the most relevant findings of the semiotic study of the money sign. It starts with a tripartition of the major types, namely commodity money, representative money, and fiat money. I then use this approach in order to position the most important contributions of other authors from semiotics and surrounding disciplines. In the second part, I develop a semiotic reading of the notion of legal tender where the latter is seen as a semiotic mechanism that provides particular conditions for the formation of the value of money. I combine a historical review with stress on important theoretic reflections during the development and implementation of pure legal tender money. The last part is dedicated to a proposal for a semiotic model of the fiat money sign. The model is developed and implemented as a reflection on some critical readings of the world financial crisis from 2008 to 2009, where the “semiotization of money” was used for explication. My model is based on one of the most insightful definitions of money, which sees them as “trust inscribed”.

KEYWORDS:

• Trust
• legal tender
• fiat money
• semiotics of money
• futurity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributor

Kristian Bankov is Professor in Semiotics at New Bulgarian University and Director of the Southeast European Center for Semiotic Studies. His interests in semiotics started during the early nineties when he was studying in Bologna, following the courses of Ugo Volli and Umberto Eco. He graduated in 1995 and teaches semiotic courses at New Bulgarian University. In 2000 he defended his PhD in Helsinki with Eero Tarasti. In 2006 he became Associate Professor in Semiotics, and he became Professor in 2011. His major interests initially were in the philosophy of language, the philosophy of Bergson, and the existential semiotics. Then he oriented his research interests toward sociosemiotics and identity. Since 2005, Kristian has studied consumer culture; in the last several years, his major interests are toward new media and digital culture. He has written four books and is active internationally, with numerous articles in Bulgarian, English, and Italian; since 2006 he has directed the organization of the international Early-Fall School of Semiotics (EFSS); in 2014 he was elected as the Secretary General of the International Association for Semiotic Studies.

Note on contributor

Kristian Bankov is Professor in Semiotics at New Bulgarian University and Director of the Southeast European Center for Semiotic Studies. His interests in semiotics started during the early nineties when he was studying in Bologna, following the courses of Ugo Volli and Umberto Eco. He graduated in 1995 and teaches semiotic courses at New Bulgarian University. In 2000 he defended his PhD in Helsinki with Eero Tarasti. In 2006 he became Associate Professor in Semiotics, and he became Professor in 2011. His major interests initially were in the philosophy of language, the philosophy of Bergson, and the existential semiotics. Then he oriented his research interests toward sociosemiotics and identity. Since 2005, Kristian has studied consumer culture; in the last several years, his major interests are toward new media and digital culture. He has written four books and is active internationally, with numerous articles in Bulgarian, English, and Italian; since 2006 he has directed the organization of the international Early-Fall School of Semiotics (EFSS); in 2014 he was elected as the Secretary General of the International Association for Semiotic Studies.

Notes

1 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/legal%20tender (last visited on 19/11/2018)