Ha I guess I have become a curmudgeon.

I guess we could call crinoid stems money like the Indians did. Back in ancient times(1977), Economics 101...professor said money has value because we all agree it does. I never understood the ruckus about paper money needing to be backed up by gold...if oil man Joe says a barrel of his oil is valued at 56 bucks and I have 56 dollars to give for that barrel of oil and also agree that a barrel is worth 56 bucks...a dollar is backed up by 1/56th of a barrel of oil...or 1/10th of a bushel of beans.

We have the commodities market to determine the value of the dollar.

If baker Bob has a non-gay marriage wedding cake and needs a barrel of oil to heat his ovens but Oil man Mat doesn't need a a non-gay marriage wedding cake...baker Bob can sell his non-gay marriage wedding cake to non-gay Garry so he can marry straight Stella...baker bob sells to Garry and takes the crinoid stems to oil man Mat for whatever portion of a barrel of oil a non-gay marriage cake is valued at based on what non-gay Garry thinks a non-gay wedding cake is worth. Said crinoid stems ultimately being worth what they all agreed they were worth.

Where gold figures in the non-gay marriage cake for a portion of a barrel of oil saga comes into play is beyond me.

I probably have that wrong somehow but hey, I'm a curmudgeon of such vintage that I actually know what Indian money is.