Unit of account or medium of exchange?/Unit of account or medium of exchange? Reply /Unit of account or medium of exchange? Rejoinder

Joseph Aschheim and George Tavlas say that "What is money?" is a "fundamental issue in monetary economics" (2006, p. 333, hereafter A&T). As Jeremy Bentham saw, it is often futile to look for the meaning of single words out of context; the sentence, rather, is what carries meaning. Suffice to say that both the unit-of-account (numéraire, measure-of-value) and medium-of-exchange functions of 'money' characterize an efficient reckoning and payments system. More substantively, A&T attribute "logical and historical precedence" to money's function as numéraire over its function as medium of exchange. The author mostly agrees with A&T on issues of substance. Rather than quibble over words, he provides further context for their position. Conceivably they mean that a single unit of account in a currency area is more important than a single medium of exchange. In a rejoinder, A&T briefly elaborate on their view that the numéraire deserves top billing, both analytically and in practice.