Marshall Stanton
I think the confusion lies in the fact that as soon as it leaves your possession, you no longer own or control it. As soon as the Treasury or the Fed puts FRNs into circulation, they have no control over them anymore than if I wrote a note and put it into circulation. I would be bound to honor it, no matter who held it, unless I explicitly placed terms such as "non-negotiable" on it, which in the case of money would make it rather useless.
Arguably, you DO create the value via your acceptance. Because whether it's gold or paper or pieces of shit, if no one is accepting it, then it's worthless! I've long argued that we never actually left the barter system. That we all ultimately offer up goods and services, but only the time between offer and acceptance is delayed via money.