money of account

計算貨幣 ／ money-of-account　—　Names of money

A unit that exists only to be written in the books, never held in the hand.

⚠ This is the concept in monetary history that is easiest to misunderstand. The unit used to state prices and the actual coins used for payment existed separately.

Because they were separate, one could be altered independently. It was possible to perform an operation such as devaluing the unit of account without changing the physical coins on hand.