Copper certificate
 | This Ebenthal-related article is a stub. Please expand it if possible; if not, consider merging it into a related article. |
A Copper certificate in general is a certificate of ownership that copper owners hold instead of storing the actual copper. The term was coined in the Kingdom of Ebenthal, to refer to the functioning of Kupfermark notes, whose value is backed by a reserve of copper. It is analogous to the gold certificate.
Banks may issue copper certificates for cooper that is allocated (non-fungible) or unallocated (fungible or pooled). Unallocated copper certificates are a form of fractional-reserve banking and do not guarantee an equal exchange for metal in the event of a run on the issuing bank's copper on deposit. Allocated copper certificates should be correlated with specific numbered bars, although it is difficult to determine whether a bank is improperly allocating a single bar to more than one party.