Fungibility is the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are capable of mutual substitution.

Examples

Examples of highly fungible commodities are crude oil, electricity, precious metals, and many currencies.

Fungibility has nothing to do with the ability to exchange one commodity for another. It has everything to do with exchanging one unit of a commodity with another unit of the same commodity.

Fungibility versus liquidity

Fungibility is different from liquidity. A good is liquid and tradable if it can be easily exchanged for money or another different good. A good is fungible if one unit of the good is substantially equivalent to another unit of the same good of the same quality at the same time and place.

Fungibility does not imply liquidity, and liquidity does not imply fungibility. Jewels can be bought and sold (the trade is liquid), but individual diamonds are not interchangeable (diamonds are not fungible). Zimbabwean dollar bank notes are interchangeable in London (they are fungible there), but they are not easily traded there (they are not liquid in London).

Fungibility in law

In legal disputes, when one party is compelled to remedy another party as the result of a ruling or adjudication, the appropriate legal remedy may depend on the fungibility of the underlying right, obligation or property interest that is intended to be restored.^[1] Depending on whether the interests of the aggrieved party are fungible (a determination made by the trier of fact), the appropriate remedy may change. For example, a court may require specific performance as a remedy for breach of contract, instead of the more favored remedy of monetary damages.^[2]

Fungibility in typography

Johanna Drucker discusses the idea that fungibility may also exist in respect of typography and the recording of information. In her article "The Future of Writing in Terms of its Past: The New Fungibility Factor" she argues that in our new age of technology, the form that written language takes is no longer an important part of the message it conveys. This is because the appearance of a message can be changed at the click of a mouse button.^[3]

See also

• Gold standard
• Private currency
• Silver standard

References

1. ^ S. Williston, The Law of Contracts § 1338 (1920); Farnsworth, Legal Remedies for Breach of Contract, 70 Colum. L. Rev. 1145, 1147 (1970)
2. ^ Bunge Corp. v. Recker, U.S. Ct. of App., 8th Cir., 1975; Restatement (Second) of Contracts Ch 16. introductory note (1981)
3. ^ Drucker, J. 1995, The Future of Writing, Emigre (Issue 35, Summer 1995).