The strange thing about money is the way it has changed, over time from being valuable commodities (such as gold and silver) to becoming pieces of paper with promises to pay the gold or silver to pieces of paper that are "legal tender for all debts public and private" to pieces of paper that promise to give you the other pieces of paper (i.e. cheques) to electronic entities that tell you how much numbers of these pieces of paper you have.
We have given up our real money for fiat money and we have given up our fiat money for promises to pay fiat money. What a wacky world we live in.
A common misconception is that paper currency is money. Currency is a form of money but it is, by far, not the predominant form of money today. In today's world, money is created by bankers at the stroke of a pen by issuing debt. Similarly, money is destroyed when a loan is repaid or, worse, when loans are defaulted on.
I personally believe that more than 90% of the adult population does not truly understand the true nature of money. It's sad, really.