# Coin - Token Coins are in themselves a preferred or agreed upon store of value. Coins are ‘minted’ or exclusively issued by privileged third parties. Tokens in the economic space protocol are not coins. Rather, they are economic objects (bundles of [Right](/right.md)s) that refer to an [Asset - Liability](/asset-liability.md) and can affect the network state (bearer smart contracts). A [Token](/token.md) is always attached to (stands for) a ‘real’ asset (encoded as a set of contractual rights). A more precise concept would be a ‘material underlier’ and there are always ‘real’ asset transfers associated with token exchanges. For example, wealth may be stored as stake, and recorded by a token entry in the network ledger to that effect (an asset recorded in a ledger as X stake tokens). Furthermore, in the economic space protocol communication is not exchange of messages, but exchange of objects (bundles of rights, capabilities, authority). Tokens are such objects, but what makes them special is that they are mutually exclusive: they are “tokens of authority”. In this sense they are like an authority modulation logic, transmitting value and authority. Tokens are access to authority and capacity to affect the network in a particular way, plus a measurement (amount). In other words, tokens are quantified authority or quantified authorship, authorship with a strength. That is a formal definition of value for the economic space protocol. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://glossary.ecsa.io/coin-token.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.