georg friedrich knapp, a german economist, coined the term "chartalism" in his "state theory of money", which was published in german in 1905 and translated into english in 1924. the name derives from the latin "charta", in the sense of a token or ticket. knapp argued that "money is a creature of law" rather than a commodity. knapp contrasted his state theory of money with "metallism", as embodied at the time in the gold standard, where the value of a unit of currency depended on the quantity of precious metal it contained or could be exchanged for. he argued the state could create pure paper money and make it exchangeable by recognising it as legal tender, with the criterion for the money of a state being "that which is accepted at the public pay offices".