纸币本位制以纸币作为流通工具。纸币是指为持有人利益而发行的流通凭证，它代表一笔特定的债务，由发行该纸币的国家或货币当局作担保；若这种纸币可替代金或银，或由金或银作后盾，则称为有保证的纸币。

The paper standard takes paper currency as the tool of circulation. Paper currency is an expression for circulated vouchers issued for the benefit of its bearer, which represent specific debt secured by the State or currency authority that issued it if this paper is a substitute for gold or silver, or secured paper backed by gold or silver.

纸币可以作为国家所拥有的黄金或白银的替代物，并且完全代表它，即支撑这种流通纸币的黄金或白银，与其价值百分之百相等。因此，持有这种代表性纸币的人有权随时按照这一准备金兑换成黄金或白银，不受任何限制或数量的约束。这种代表性货币实际上被视为金属本位制的一种。唯一的区别在于，流通中的不再是黄金或白银本身，而是由这种代表性货币取而代之，以其代表者的身份进入流通。

Paper currency can be a substitute for gold or silver possessed by the State such that it represents it completely i.e. the gold or silver backing this circulating paper represents 100% of this value. So the bearer of this representative paper currency has the right to exchange it into gold or silver, according to this cover, whenever he wants without any restriction or limit. This representative currency is considered, in reality, to be of the metallic system. All that happens is that instead of circulating gold or silver themselves, this representative currency takes their place in circulation in its capacity as their representative.