The history of money goes back to distant and ancient times. It is very fascinating and dates back thousands of years. From the first days of barter relations to the first metal coins and paper money, they have always had an important influence on the functioning of society in all periods of human existence.
Money is considered one of the earliest and most significant inventions of civilization, which is extremely necessary for the development of trade and international relations.
How Did Money First Appear
Money is essentially necessary for everyone; it primarily provides an intermediary function that allows people to choose when and where they want to become buyers. Historically, the first kind of money people used was merchandise money. These were various items of very different value and they were used to obtain other goods.
In primitive society, special value was given to certain things. The most common means of payment were seashells – kauri in Africa and wampum in the Americas. The small kauri shell came from the Maldives, and became a valuable object in the civilizations of China and India from the earliest times. American Indians used the small white cylindrical shell as a means of payment and ceremonial gifts. Europeans call these precious objects “wampum.”
Money: the Concept and its Basic Function
Money in any form of manifestation whether it be seashells, metal coins, sheets of paper, or lines of code created by a computer, has not necessarily intrinsic value in all cases. On the contrary, money is an object to which value is assigned that makes it possible to trade goods and services. Certain forms of money, such as metal coins, have real value. It depends on the materials used to make it. However, paper money is more common in the modern world and it usually lacks real value. Throughout the stages of evolution, money has taken several different forms.
Money allows mankind to sell and buy goods and services. It determines the prices of goods and services provided and gives people a way to save and preserve their wealth. In other words, money is a tool of exchange with a recognized value that has been adopted to make it easier for people to trade products and services among themselves. Its value lies in the fact that money is considered a unit of account. It was accepted as a social standard that made it possible to value things and accept payments.
So, it can be generally concluded that the basic definition of money is everything that a group of people normally accept in exchange for goods, services, or resources. Each country has its own system of coin and paper money exchange.
First Money
The history of money covers the entire world, as different cultures recognized the need to facilitate trade between several parties by introducing a single method of payment into the process. Money in its various forms of manifestation has been a historical part of humanity for the past five thousand years. Before that, there were barter relationships.
The first coins were created in the territory of modern Western Turkey around the 7th century B.C. They were made of electrum, natural gold and silver alloys. During the same period, a completely different part of the world, namely China, also began to use minting coins. These coins are characterized by two forms. Coins of the first kind resemble the metal part of a shovel, while others look like the blade of a knife with a handle. In both cases, the flat surfaces are decorated with Chinese characters. These patterns were copied in almost every state in China during the last centuries of the Zhou dynasty.
In Rome, near the temple of the goddess Juno, there was also coin minting. In 600 BC, the king of Lydia minted the country’s first official money, the stater. They were made of electrum, and a mixture of silver and gold, and the coins had images engraved on them to serve as denominations.
The Greek cities west of Lydia and the great Persian empire to the east quickly mastered the new useful technique of metal money. By the end of the 6th century, the coinage was widespread throughout the region. The Anglo-Saxon king Offa introduced the first English coin, known as the penny, around 790 BCE.
Coins were a milestone in the history of money because they were one of the first currencies that allowed people to pay by the number of coins rather than by weight.
Paper Money
Paper money represents banknotes that have a digital value printed on them, with special security features. Paper money is also called fiat money. This concept was first introduced to Europe by Arab merchants in the Middle Ages.
They were first invented in China. A shortage of copper forced China to put the world’s first paper money into circulation in the 9th century, 700 years before Europe did.
| Place | Coin Name |
| St. Joachimsthal mine on the territory of the modern Czech Republic | silver coins called thalers |
| Spain | Thaler became the world’s first currency |
| England | called them the dollar, and the U.S. dollar was based on it..
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About 250 years ago, paper money began to circulate widely in Europe. At first, banks printed money and put banknotes into circulation. To guarantee the value of banknotes, the issuing bank had to keep a gold reservegold of equal value in its depositories. The situation today is different from the past. Now only central banks have the right to print and issue money.
In today’s world, in addition to paper money, digital currencies in the form of bitcoins, altcoins, and ethereum have successfully established themselves and are very popular. Today, cryptocurrency is used in many areas, including betting. Malta casino offer their customers to play gambling games, including free slots Cleopatra and conduct transactions using digital currency, which is very attractive to many gamblers.
