silver certificate
1
8.7
- noun
- /ˈsɪlvər ˌsɜːrtɪfɪkɪt/
- Archaic
:
certificado de plata
- Before its discontinuation, a silver certificate could be exchanged for its value in silver dollars.
Examples
-
After JFK's murder, no more silver certificates were issued.
-
This order gave the U.S. Treasury the power to, quote, "Issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, "silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury."
-
So what was once a silver certificate now is just a Federal Reserve note and IOU from the US government.
-
If enough of these silver certificates were to come into circulation, they would have eliminated the demand for Federal Reserve notes.
Blog text (10) -
This is because the silver certificates are backed by silver, and the Federal Reserve notes are not backed by anything.
Blog text (10) -
After Mr. Kennedy was assassinated just five months later, no more silver certificates were issued.
Blog text (10) -
Mr. Kennedy's order gave the Treasury the power "to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury."
Blog text (10) -
Mr. Kennedy's order gave the Treasury the power to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury.
Blog text (15) -
In March 1964, Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillon halted redemption of silver certificates for silver dollars.
Blog text (10) -
On June 24, 1968, President Johnson issued a proclamation that henceforth Federal Reserve silver certificates were merely fiat legal tender and could not be redeemed in silver.
Blog text (5)
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a paper entitling the holder to silver' is directly and compositionally derivable from 'silver' (the metal/commodity) + 'certificate' (a formal paper granting rights). This is a common noun + noun compounding pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer it refers to a financial document linked to silver, even if they don’t know the historical U.S. usage.
Etymology
Silver certificate comes from old U.S. banknotes: silver names the metal and certificate was a paper promise that the note 'could be exchanged for silver' at a bank. So the name means a paper note you could trade for actual silver.