CIRCULATING MEDIUM, a term often applied to money in the broad sense of the word. It includes not only the minted coin of the realm, and the Bank of England notes, which are in effect gold certificates, but currency notes, dollar bills, cheques and bills of exchange. All these circulate to perform the function of money as a medium of exchange. It is notable that by far the greater part of the circulating medium in modern great com mercial nations now consists of paper credit instruments. In Great Britain and America the cheque is the main currency of commerce. See MONEY.