"Witches' Money." John Collier

Review: An American artist. The peasants cash one of his  checks for 30,000. The rest of the checks are blank and worthless. The illusion that these blank checks can be written by anyone and money received. To the peasants these checks are money and they are exchanged for goods and property. A booming economy develops in the village based on the worthless checks. And then the trip to town to cash in all the worthless checks. The reader can guess the rest. 

Rating: *** out of *****. 

Short Story Masterpieces. Ed. RP Warren and A Erskine. New York: Dell Books. 1954.