Representative money is a certificate or token that can be exchanged for the underlying commodity. For example, instead of carrying the gold commodity money with you, the gold might have been kept in a bank vault and you might carry a paper certificate that represents-or was "backed"-by the gold in the vault. It was understood that the certificate could be redeemed for gold at any time. Also, the certificate was easier and safer to carry than the actual gold. Over time people grew to trust the paper certificates as much as the gold. Representative money led to the use of fiat money-the type used in modern economies today.
