Face value

The Jolly Contrarian’s Dictionary The snippy guide to financial services lingo.™ Go Premium Index — Click ᐅ to expand: Dictionary Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Requests? Insults? We’d love to 📧 hear from you. Sign up for our newsletter.

Face value /feɪs ˈvaljuː/ (n.)
1. An album by Phil Collins. The Jolly Contrarian has not listened to it and does not intend to. Having said that, it starts with “In the Air Tonight” which means (a) it cannot be irredeemably bad, but (b) judging by everything else Phil Collins has ever put out, it will almost certainly go quickly downhill after such a bright start.

2. The value something claims to have, which may be markedly different from its mark-to-market value. The face value of a Phil Collins concert ticket, for example, can be as much as £75.