1. The amount of shares or stock available, or the amount of banknotes in circulation.

2. The process by which new shares are distributed. In a bonus issue (UK) or scrip issue (US) extra shares are given to existing shareholders. In a rights issue new shares are sold on preferential terms to existing shareholders. New issues of shares may be sold in various ways: in a tender issue they go to the highest bidders; in a public issue, offer for sale, or placing, the company fixes the price and shares are bid for by investment institutions or the general public. An issuing house, usually a merchant bank, may buy the whole issue at an agreed price and then sell it on, or it may underwrite the issue, that is, guarantee that it will buy any shares nobody else takes up.