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# Unstamped Bars

## Definition

Raw metal in bar form without official certification of weight or fineness, requiring individual weighing and assaying for each transaction, creating significant inconvenience and opportunities for fraud in commercial exchange.

## Source Chapter

Book I, Chapter 4

## Context

Smith describes how early commerce used unstamped metal bars before the invention of coinage, noting the two major inconveniences: the trouble of weighing and the difficulty of assaying, which made transactions cumbersome and vulnerable to deception.

## Economic Domain

Exchange

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