>>>>I don't think He pays much attention to that. He just picks a side and helps out generally so that when they win, He can get one of those "God was on our side" accolades.
>>>
>>>Funny. I have a repro of a WWII poster, with a German soldier and the legend "Gott Mitt Uns"
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>>They had that on their belt buckles, too. Now there's also another nation where they trust their money to the guy. Or the money has such a firm standing that they feel they need to call the guy or nobody would trust the bearer... or something to that effect.
>
>As in: "In God we trust. Everyone else must provide surety"?

As in "our trustee is a god"... for he holds our money :)

>On our banknotes is written "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of ...", signed by the chief cashier of the Bank of England. Now I wonder what would happen if I went in there and presented him with it. Would he be obliged to give me its value in gold? Or would he just give me back a note or the same value?
>
>I've never quite understood that wording.

Sounds like an anachronistic ritual formula without much meaning nowadays. Specially "sum of metal" doesn't sound right - what's the numeric value of a molecule, I wonder, and how does that algebra work. Can you do the same math (i.e. sum, the only math there is) with, say, nitrogen or sulfur?

It may be interesting to try what it says - maybe the answer would be "how can you prove that you are The Bearer On Demand"?