One of the most successful fiat monetary systems was the tally stick system used by the king of England. It lasted a long time and was used by the king to finance his empire.A tally stick was broken into two pieces. On both sides, an amount of gold was notched into the stick. The king spent the tally sticks as if they were gold. When it was time to pay taxes, the king accepted tally sticks as equivalent to gold. This ensured that tally sticks traded at parity with gold.The tally sticks were practically uncounterfeitable. The wood grain had to match, the crack in the wood had to match, and the inscription on both sides had to match.The tally stick system is credit-based money and not debt-based money. The king spent the tally sticks into circulation when he needed to buy something. The tally sticks were retired from circulation as they were used to pay taxes. If "money spent into circulation by king" is approximately equal to "taxes collected", then the system works and the money supply is stable.Even though tally sticks were intrinsically worthless, taxation created a demand for them. That's the same reason that Federal Reserve Notes are really slave points. Even though Federal Reserve Notes are intrinsically worthless, the income tax creates a demand for them. The government could, in theory, repeal the income tax and finance its activities solely by printing new money. However, without income taxes, people would realize that the dollar is worthless and start using something else as money. Using gold as money accomplishes nothing, because income taxes must be paid in Federal Reserve Notes. According to the IRS, all economic activity is subject to taxation.The income tax and Federal Reserve are two sides of the same evil. You can't boycott the Federal Reserve unless you also boycott income taxes.The tally stick system ended when the Bank of England was created. By delegating his money creation power to a central bank, the king effectively ceded his sovereignty to the bank.