The History Of Currency

What's money?

By definition, it is something of value. But over the last 10,000 years, the material shape that money has taken has changed considerably from cattle and cowrie shells to today's electronic currency. Here, we'll get an overview of the history of cash.

Today we value gold Kruggerands and newspaper Franklins, but cattle and cowrie shells have also served as currency. Barter is the exchange of resources or services for mutual benefit, and the practice probably dates back millions of years, possibly even to the dawn of modern humans. Some would even argue that it isn't purely a human activity, plants and animals have been bartering in symbiotic relationships for millions of years.

Today people, organizations, and governments still use and frequently prefer, barter as a type of exchange of services and goods. Between 9000 - 6000 B.C. cattle, which through history and throughout the globe have included not only cows but additionally sheep, camels, along with other livestock, are the first and oldest form of cash. With the advent of agriculture, also came the use of grain along with other vegetable or plant products as a standard form of barter in many cultures.

Let's see a quick timeline of money, as the people of their times understood it.

1200 B.C.: Cowrie Shells - The first use of cowries, the shells of a mollusk which was used available in the shallow waters of the Pacific, and the Indian Ocean, was in China. Historically, many societies used cowries as money, and even as late as the center of this century, cowries have been utilized in some portions of Africa. The cowrie is the most widely and longest used currency in history.

One thousand B.C.: First Metal Money and Coins - Bronze and Copper cowrie imitations were manufactured by China towards the end of the Stone Age and might be considered some of the earliest forms of metal coins. Metal tool money, like knife and spade monies, was also first utilized in China. This early metal money developed into primitive versions of round coins. Chinese coins were made out of base metals, frequently containing holes so that they might be put together like a chain.

500 B.C.: Modern Coinage - Outside of China, the first coins developed out of lumps of silver. They soon took the famous round form of today and were stamped with different gods and emperors to mark their authenticity. These early coins first appeared in Lydia, which is part of present-day Turkey, but the techniques were rapidly copied and further refined by the Greek, Persian, Macedonian, and afterward the Ancient Rome empires. Unlike Chinese coins that depended on base metals, these new coins were made from precious metals like silver, bronze, and gold, which had more intrinsic value.

118 B.C.: Leather Money - Leather money was utilized in China in the shape of one-foot sq pieces of white deerskin with colorful borders.

What would money like tomorrow? Did somebody say "Crypto"?

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