The 'principle of invariance' in currency systems: A comment on Caianiello et al.

In an often-cited article in this journal, Caianiello et al. (1982. International Journal of General Systems, 8 (2), 81-92) formulate a 'principle of invariance' for currency systems. They build on this principle to explain the distribution of the coins and banknotes in circulation over the different denominations, and analyse how a currency system adjusts to inflation. This paper shows that Caianiello et al.'s distribution law is flawed because the principle of invariance is false.