True, money started out as a traditional side market to commodities. Over the years, the added elasticity stemming from theories of monetary elasticity really disadvantages coin makers. "Structured inflation".
The US could replace the Dollar with a "trade dollar" at 10:1. In theory, pennies would cost 0.002 to make. "Structured deflation".
Truth is structured inflation isn't infallible, but it is reliable. So...