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((Short description|Development of systems that act as money))
((Use dmy dates|date=April 2022))
((Numismatics))
The '''history of money''' is the development over time of systems for the exchange, storage, and measurement of wealth. [[Money]] is a means of fulfilling these functions indirectly and in general rather than directly, as with [[barter]].

Money may take a physical form as in coins and notes, or may exist as a written or electronic account. It may have intrinsic value ([[commodity money]]), or be legally exchangeable for something with intrinsic value ([[representative money]]), or only have nominal value ([[fiat money]]).
((TOC limit))

==Overview==
((more citations needed section |date=March 2021))
Money was invented before written history began.<ref name="Schmandt-Besserat">[https://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/ Denise Schmandt-Besserat] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527215448/http://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/ |date=27 May 2019 )), [https://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/tokens/tokens/ Tokens: their Significance for the Origin of Counting and Writing] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181128061113/https://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/tokens/tokens/ |date=28 November 2018 ))</ref><ref>Keynes, J.M. (1930). ''A Treatise on Money''. Volume I, p. 13</ref> Consequently, any story of how money first developed is mostly based on conjecture and logical inference.

The significant evidence establishes many things were traded in ancient markets that could be described as a [[medium of exchange]]. These included livestock and grain – things directly useful in themselves – but also merely attractive items such as [[cowrie shell]]s or [[bead]]s((citation needed|date=January 2022)) which were exchanged for more useful [[commodities]]. However, such exchanges would be better described as [[barter system|barter]], and the common bartering of a particular commodity (especially when the commodity items are not fungible) does not technically make that commodity "[[money]]" or a "[[commodity money]]" like the [[shekel]] – which was both a coin representing a specific weight of [[barley]], and the weight of that sack of barley.<ref name="Kramer, pp. 52">Kramer, ''History Begins at Sumer'', pp. 52–55.</ref>

Due to the complexities of ancient history (ancient civilizations developing at different paces and not keeping accurate records, or having their records destroyed), and because the ancient origins of economic systems precede written history, it has not been possible to trace the true origin of the invention of money. Further, evidence in the histories<ref name="yale2">((cite web|url=http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/hammint.htm |title=The Code of Hammurabi : Introduction |access-date=14 September 2007 |publisher=Yale University |year=1915 |author=Charles F. Horne |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070908205713/http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/hammint.htm |archive-date=8 September 2007 ))</ref> supports the idea that money has taken two main forms, divided into the broad categories of ''[[Debits and credits|money of account]]'' (debits and credits on ledgers) and ''[[medium of exchange|money of exchange]]'' (tangible media of exchange made from clay, leather, paper, bamboo, metal, etc.).

As "money of account" depends on the ability to record a count, the [[tally stick]] was a significant development. The oldest of these dates from the [[Aurignacian]], about 30,000 years ago.<ref>Graham Flegg, ''Numbers: their history and meaning'', Courier Dover Publications, 2002 ((ISBN|978-0-486-42165-0)), pp.&nbsp;41–42.</ref><ref>((cite book|last1=Beckmann|first1=Petr|title=A History of ((pi)) (PI)|date=1971|publisher=The Golem Press|location=Boulder, Colorado|isbn=978-0-911762-12-9|page=8))</ref> The 20,000-year-old [[Ishango Bone]] – found near one of the sources of the Nile in the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]] – seems to use matched tally marks on the thigh bone of a baboon for correspondence counting. Accounting records – in the [[monetary system]] sense of the term accounting – dating back more than 7,000 years have been found in [[Mesopotamia]],<ref name="Friedlob 1996">Friedlob, G. Thomas & Plewa, Franklin James, ''Understanding balance sheets'', [[John Wiley & Sons]], NYC, 1996, ((ISBN|0-471-13075-3)), p. 1</ref> and documents from ancient Mesopotamia show lists of [[expenditure]]s, and [[Good (economics)|goods]] received and traded and the [[history of accounting]] evidences that money of account pre-dates the use of coinage by several thousand years. [[David Graeber]] proposes that money as a unit of account was invented when the unquantifiable obligation "I owe you one" transformed into the quantifiable notion of "I owe you one unit of something". In this view, money emerged first as money of account and only later took the form of money of exchange.<ref name="ReferenceA">((cite book|first=David |last=Graeber|title= Debt: The First 5,000 Years|url=https://archive.org/details/debtfirst5000yea00grae |url-access=registration |isbn=978-1-933633-86-2|year=2011|publisher=Melville House ))</ref><ref name="nakedcapitalism.com">((cite web|first=David|last=Graeber|title=What is Debt? – An Interview with Economic Anthropologist David Graeber|date=26 August 2011|url=http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/what-is-debt-%E2%80%93-an-interview-with-economic-anthropologist-david-graeber.html|access-date=11 January 2012|archive-date=24 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924032744/https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/what-is-debt-%E2%80%93-an-interview-with-economic-anthropologist-david-graeber.html|url-status=live))</ref>

Regarding money of exchange, the use of [[representative money]] historically pre-dates the invention of [[coin]]age as well.<ref name="Schmandt-Besserat"/> In the ancient empires of Egypt, Babylon, India and China, the temples and palaces often had commodity warehouses which made use of clay tokens<ref name="Schmandt-Besserat"/> and other materials which served as evidence of a claim upon a portion of the goods stored in the warehouses.<ref name="mundell">Robert A. Mundell, [http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/download/fedora_content/download/ac:114139/CONTENT/econ_0102_08.pdf The Birth of Coinage] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171216070632/https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/download/fedora_content/download/ac:114139/CONTENT/econ_0102_08.pdf |date=16 December 2017 )), Discussion Paper #:0102-08, Department of Economics, [[Columbia University]], February 2002.</ref> There is no concrete evidence these kinds of tokens were used for trade, however, only for administration and accounting.<ref name="Schmandt-Besserat"/>

===Use of metals===
While not the oldest form of money of exchange, various metals (both common and [[precious metals]]) were also used in both [[barter system]]s and [[monetary system]]s; and the historical use of metals provides some of the clearest illustration of how [[barter system]]s gave way to [[monetary system]]s. The [[Roman Republican currency|Romans' use of bronze]], while not among the most ancient examples, is well documented, and it illustrates this transition clearly. First, the ''[[aes rude]]'' (rough bronze) was used. This was a heavy weight of unmeasured bronze used in what was probably a barter system: the suitability of bronze for barter resulted solely from the alloy's usefulness in [[metalsmith]]ing, and it was bartered with the intent of being turned into tools. The next historical step was bronze in bars that had a 5-pound pre-measured weight (presumably to make barter easier and fairer), called ''[[aes signatum]]'' (signed bronze), which is where debate arises as to whether this was still barter, or had become a [[monetary system]]. Finally, there is a clear break from the use of bronze in barter into its indisputable use as money, because of lighter measures of bronze not intended to be used as anything other than coinage for transactions. The ''[[aes grave]]'' (heavy bronze) (or [[As (coin)|''As'']]) is the start of the use of coins in Rome, but not the oldest known example of metal coinage.

Likewise, ancient [[Sparta]] minted coins from iron to discourage its citizens from engaging in foreign trade.<ref>((Cite web |url=http://hsc.csu.edu.au/ancient_history/societies/greece/spartan_society/sparta_social/ancient_sparta_socialsystem.htm |title=HSC Online – Spartan society to the Battle of Leuctra 371 BC |access-date=21 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140428111720/http://hsc.csu.edu.au/ancient_history/societies/greece/spartan_society/sparta_social/ancient_sparta_socialsystem.htm |archive-date=28 April 2014 |url-status=dead ))</ref> In the early 17th century Sweden lacked precious metals, and so produced "[[Swedish riksdaler|plate money]]": large slabs of copper 50&nbsp;cm or more in length and width, stamped with indications of their value.

Gold coins began to be minted again in Europe in the 13th century. Frederick II is credited with having reintroduced gold coins during the [[Crusades]]. During the 14th century Europe changed from use of silver in currency to minting of gold.<ref name="Postan & Miller"/><ref>((cite book|author=[[William Arthur Shaw]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cHRvtwTLcMAC&q=History+of+gold+coins&pg=PA832|title=The History of Currency, 1252–1896|publisher=Library of Alexandria|orig-year=1967|isbn=1465518878|year=1987|access-date=28 November 2020|archive-date=24 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231224130332/https://books.google.com/books?id=cHRvtwTLcMAC&q=History+of+gold+coins&pg=PA832#v=snippet&q=History%20of%20gold%20coins&f=false|url-status=live))</ref> Vienna made this change in 1328.<ref name="Postan & Miller">((cite book|author=M M Postan, E Miller|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wSia_4PpeqQC&q=Philip+IV+first+gold+coinage&pg=PR1|title=The Cambridge Economic History of Europe: Trade and industry in the Middle Ages|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1987|isbn=0521087090|orig-year=1896|access-date=28 November 2020|archive-date=24 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231224130316/https://books.google.com/books?id=wSia_4PpeqQC&q=Philip+IV+first+gold+coinage&pg=PR1#v=snippet&q=Philip%20IV%20first%20gold%20coinage&f=false|url-status=live))</ref>

Metal-based coins had the advantage of carrying their value within the coins themselves. On the other hand, they induced manipulations, such as the clipping of coins to remove some of the precious metal. A greater problem was the co-existence of gold, silver and copper coins in Europe. The exchange rates between the metals varied with supply and demand. For instance the gold guinea coin began to rise against the silver crown in England in the 1670s and 1680s. Consequently, silver was exported from England in exchange for gold imports. The effect was worsened with Asian traders not sharing the European appreciation of gold altogether; gold left Asia and silver left Europe in quantities European observers like [[Isaac Newton]], Master of the [[Royal Mint]], observed with unease.<ref>((cite web |url=http://www.pierre-marteau.com/editions/1701-25-mint-reports/report-1717-09-25.html |title=Sir Isaac Newton's state of the gold and silver coin (25 September 1717). |publisher=[[Pierre Marteau]] |access-date=9 March 2008 |archive-date=6 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170406191205/http://www.pierre-marteau.com/editions/1701-25-mint-reports/report-1717-09-25.html |url-status=live ))</ref>

Stability came when national banks guaranteed to change silver money into gold at a fixed rate; it did, however, not come easily. The [[Bank of England]] risked a national financial catastrophe in the 1730s when customers demanded their money be changed into gold in a moment of crisis. Eventually London's merchants saved the bank and the nation with financial guarantees.((Citation needed|date=September 2011))

Another step in the evolution of money was the change from a coin being a unit of weight to being a unit of value. A distinction could be made between its commodity value and its ''specie'' value (its value as a coin). The difference in these values is [[seigniorage]].<ref>((Cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/seigniorage |title=Merriam-Webster dictionary, Seigniorage |access-date=12 July 2022 |archive-date=12 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220712161824/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/seigniorage |url-status=live ))</ref><ref>((Cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2009/01/what_is_seigniorage_1.html |title=What is Seigniorage?, NPR |access-date=12 July 2022 |archive-date=12 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220712161825/https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2009/01/what_is_seigniorage_1.html |url-status=live ))</ref>

==Theories of money==
((main|Monetary economics))
The earliest ideas included [[Aristotle]]'s "[[Metallism|metallist]]" and [[Plato]]'s "[[Chartalism|chartalist]]" concepts, which [[Joseph Schumpeter]] integrated into his own theory of money as forms of classification.<ref name=":0">((Cite book|title=Marx's Theory of Money: Modern Appraisals|url=https://archive.org/details/marxstheorymoney00mose|url-access=limited|last=Moseley|first=F|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2004|isbn=978-1403936417|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/marxstheorymoney00mose/page/n73 65]))</ref> Especially, the Austrian economist attempted to develop a [[Catallactics|catallactic]] theory of money out of Claim Theory.<ref>((Cite book|title=The Theory of Money and Credit|last=von Mises|first=Ludwig|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing|year=2013|isbn=978-1620871614|location=New York|pages=472))</ref> Schumpeter's theory had several themes, but the most important of these involved the notions that money can be analyzed from the viewpoint of [[social accounting]] and that it is also firmly connected to the [[Theory of value (economics)|theory of value]] and price.<ref>((Cite book|title=Joseph A. Schumpeter: His Life and Work|last=Swedberg|first=Richard|publisher=Polity Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0745668703|location=Malden, MA|pages=1902))</ref>

There are at least two theories of what money is, and these can influence the interpretation of historical and archeological evidence of early monetary systems. The [[commodity money|commodity theory of money]] (money of exchange) is preferred by those who wish to view money as a natural outgrowth of market activity.<ref>Tymoigne, Éric & Wray, L. Randall (2005), [http://www.cfeps.org/pubs/wp-pdf/WP45-Tymoigne-Wray.pdf ''Money: An Alternative Story''] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200423033106/http://www.cfeps.org/pubs/wp-pdf/WP45-Tymoigne-Wray.pdf |date=23 April 2020 )), p. 2</ref> Others view the [[credit theory of money]] (money of account) as more plausible and may posit a key role for the state in establishing money. The commodity theory is more widely held and much of this article is written from that point of view.<ref>Wray, L. Randall (2012), [http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_717.pdf ''Introduction to an Alternative History of Money''] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721093833/http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_717.pdf |date=21 July 2018 )), p. 3</ref> Overall, the different theories of money developed by economists largely focus on functions, use, and management of money.<ref name=":0" />

Other theorists also note that the status of a particular form of money always depends on the status ascribed to it by individuals and by society.<ref name=":1">((Cite book|title=Money Machines: Electronic Financial Technologies, Distancing, and Responsibility in Global Finance|last=Coeckelbergh|first=Mark|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|year=2015|isbn=978-1472445087|location=Burlington, VT|page=98))</ref> For instance, gold may be seen as valuable in one society but not in another or that a bank note is merely a piece of paper until it is agreed that it has monetary value.<ref name=":1" />

===Money supply===
((main|Money supply))
In modern times economists have sought to classify the different types of [[money supply]]. The different measures of the money supply have been classified by various [[central bank]]s, using the prefix "M". The supply classifications often depend on how narrowly a supply is specified, for example the "M"s may range from M0 (narrowest) to M3 (broadest).

==Technologies==
===Assaying===
[[Assaying]] is analysis of the chemical composition of metals. The discovery of the [[Touchstone (assaying tool)|touchstone]]((When|date=September 2018)) for assaying helped the popularisation of metal-based commodity money and coinage.((Citation needed|date=September 2018)) Any soft metal, such as gold, can be tested for purity on a touchstone. As a result, the use of gold for as commodity money spread from [[Asia Minor]], where it first gained wide usage.((dubious|date=January 2018))

A touchstone allows the amount of gold in a sample of an [[alloy]] to been estimated. In turn this allows the alloy's purity to be estimated. This allows [[coin]]s with a uniform amount of gold to be created. Coins were typically [[mint (coin)|minted]] by governments and then stamped with an emblem that guaranteed the weight and value of the metal. However, as well as intrinsic value coins had a [[face value]]. Sometimes governments would reduce the amount of precious metal in a coin (reducing the intrinsic value) and assert the same face value, this practice is known as [[debasement]].((Citation needed|date=September 2018))

==Prehistory: predecessors of money and its emergence==

===Non-monetary exchange===
====Gifting and debt====

There is no evidence, historical or contemporary, of a society in which barter is the main mode of exchange;<ref name="Humphrey, Caroline 1985">Humphrey, Caroline. 1985. "Barter and Economic Disintegration". Man, New Series 20 (1): 48–72.</ref>
instead, non-monetary societies operated largely along the principles of [[gift economy]] and [[debt]].<ref>[[Marcel Mauss|Mauss, Marcel]]. ''The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies''. pp. 36–37.</ref><ref>((cite web |url=http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/what-is-debt-%E2%80%93-an-interview-with-economic-anthropologist-david-graeber.html |title=What is Debt? – An Interview with Economic Anthropologist David Graeber |publisher=[[Naked Capitalism]] |date=2011-08-26 |access-date=11 January 2012 |archive-date=24 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924032744/https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/what-is-debt-%E2%80%93-an-interview-with-economic-anthropologist-david-graeber.html |url-status=live ))</ref><ref>David Graeber: ''Debt: The First 5000 Years'', Melville 2011. Cf. [http://socialtextjournal.org/a-history-of-debt/ review] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200420132635/https://socialtextjournal.org/a-history-of-debt/ |date=20 April 2020 ))</ref> When barter did in fact occur, it was usually between either complete strangers or potential enemies.<ref name="Graeber, David pp. 153-154">((cite book |author=David Graeber |title=Toward an anthropological theory of value: the false coin of our own dreams |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uo8tttilAlQC&pg=PA153 |access-date=10 February 2011 |year=2001 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-312-24045-5 |pages=153–154 |archive-date=24 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231224130323/https://books.google.com/books?id=uo8tttilAlQC&pg=PA153 |url-status=live ))</ref>

====Barter====
((Main|Barter))

With barter, an individual possessing any surplus of value, such as a measure of grain or a quantity of livestock, could directly exchange it for something perceived to have similar or greater value or [[utility]], such as a clay pot or a tool, however, the capacity to carry out barter transactions is limited in that it depends on a [[coincidence of wants]]. For example, a farmer has to find someone who not only wants the grain he produced but who could also offer something in return that the farmer wants. Anthropological evidence suggests that barter was never used systemically within a society, and that it played little role in the emergence of money.<ref name="Graeber" />

=====Hypothesis of barter as the origin of money=====

In ''[[Politics (Aristotle)|Politics]]'' Book 1:9<ref>S Meikle [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4182455 "Aristotle on Money"] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181030095038/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4182455 |date=30 October 2018 )) [[Phronesis]] Vol. 39, No. 1 (1994), pp. 26–44 Retrieved 2012-06-05</ref> (((circa|350&nbsp;[[Common Era|BC]]))) the Greek philosopher Aristotle contemplated the nature of money. He considered that every object has two uses: the original purpose for which the object was designed, and as an item to sell or barter.<ref>[[Aristotle]] [http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.1.one.html Politics] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605100455/http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.1.one.html |date=5 June 2012 )) Translated by Benjamin Jowett MIT University</ref> The assignment of monetary value to an otherwise insignificant object such as a coin or [[promissory note]] arises as people acquired a psychological capacity to place trust in each other and in external authority within barter exchange.<ref name="Lewis">((cite book|author=N. K. Lewis|title=Gold: The Once and Future Money|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m82jozV3Qw4C&q=History+of+gold|access-date=2012-06-04|orig-year=2001|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2007|isbn=978-0470047668|archive-date=24 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231224130316/https://books.google.com/books?id=m82jozV3Qw4C&q=History+of+gold#v=snippet&q=History%20of%20gold&f=false|url-status=live))</ref><ref name="ggggggy">((cite book|author=[[David Kinley|D Kinley]]|title=Money: A Study of the Theory of the Medium of Exchange|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbI62wAQhJ0C&q=Theory+of+evolution+of+money&pg=PA14|access-date=2012-06-04|orig-year=2001|publisher=Simon Publications LLC|year=2003|isbn=193251211X))((Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes ))</ref> Finding people to barter with is a time-consuming process; Austrian economist [[Carl Menger]] hypothesised that this reason was a driving force in the creation of monetary systems – people seeking a way to stop wasting their time looking for someone to barter with.<ref>((Cite web|url=https://mises.org/library/origin-money-and-its-value|title=The Origin of Money and Its Value|last=Kanopiadmin|date=2003-09-29|website=Mises Institute|language=en|access-date=2020-02-17|archive-date=23 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200323082452/https://mises.org/library/origin-money-and-its-value|url-status=live))</ref>

=====Hypothesis of credit as the origin of money=====
In his book ''[[Debt: The First 5,000 Years]]'', anthropologist [[David Graeber]] argues against the suggestion that money was invented to replace [[barter]].<ref>((Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/barter-society-myth/471051/|title=The Myth of the Barter Economy|last=Strauss|first=Ilana E.|date=2016-02-26|website=The Atlantic|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-17|archive-date=15 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215153209/https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/barter-society-myth/471051/|url-status=live))</ref> The problem with this version of history, he suggests, is the lack of any supporting evidence. His research indicates that [[Gift economy|gift economies]] were common, at least at the beginnings of the [[History of agriculture|first agrarian]] societies, when humans used elaborate credit systems. Graeber proposes that money as a unit of account was invented the moment when the unquantifiable obligation "I owe you one" transformed into the quantifiable notion of "I owe you one unit of something". In this view, money emerged first as credit and only later acquired the functions of a medium of exchange and a store of value.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="nakedcapitalism.com"/> Graeber's criticism partly relies on and follows that made by A. Mitchell Innes in his 1913 article "What is money?". Innes refutes the barter theory of money, by examining historic evidence and showing that early coins never were of consistent value nor of more or less consistent metal content. Therefore, he concludes that sales is not exchange of goods for some universal commodity, but an exchange for credit. He argues that "credit and credit alone is money".<ref>Innes, A. Mitchell 1913. "What is Money?". ''The Banking Law Journal'' (May): 377–408. Reprinted in L. Randall Wray (Ed.) 2004 "Credit and State Theories of Money"</ref> Anthropologist Caroline Humphrey examines the available ethnographic data and concludes that "No example of a barter economy, pure and simple, has ever been described, let alone the emergence from it of money; all available ethnography suggests that there never has been such a thing".<ref name="Humphrey, Caroline 1985"/>

Economists [[Robert P. Murphy]] and [[George Selgin]] replied to Graeber saying that the barter hypothesis is consistent with economic principles, and a barter system would be too brief to leave a permanent record.<ref>((Cite web|url=https://mises.org/library/have-anthropologists-overturned-menger|title=Have Anthropologists Overturned Menger?|last=kanopiadmin|date=2011-08-30|website=Mises Institute|language=en|access-date=2020-02-12|archive-date=8 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808175742/https://mises.org/library/have-anthropologists-overturned-menger|url-status=live))</ref><ref>((Cite web|url=https://www.cato.org/blog/myth-myth-barter|title=The Myth of the Myth of Barter|date=2016-03-15|website=Cato Institute|language=en|access-date=2020-02-12|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803125325/https://www.cato.org/blog/myth-myth-barter|url-status=live))</ref> John Alexander Smith from [[Bella Caledonia]] said that in this exchange Graeber is the one acting as a scientist by trying to [[Falsifiability|falsify]] the barter hypotheses, while Selgin is taking a theological stance by taking the hypothesis as [[Fallacy of authority|truth revealed from authority]].<ref>((Cite web|url=https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2016/06/08/the-myth-of-the-myth-of-the-myth-of-barter-and-the-return-of-the-armchair-ethnologists/|title=The Myth of the Myth of the Myth of Barter and the Return of the Armchair Ethnologists|date=2016-06-08|website=Bella Caledonia|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-02-12|archive-date=15 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200315172746/https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2016/06/08/the-myth-of-the-myth-of-the-myth-of-barter-and-the-return-of-the-armchair-ethnologists/|url-status=live))</ref>

====Gift economy====
In a [[gift economy]], valuable [[goods and services]] are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards (i.e. there is no formal ''[[quid pro quo]]'').<ref name="Cheal ">((cite book|last=Cheal |first=David J |title=The Gift Economy |publisher=Routledge|location=New York|year=1988|pages=1–19|chapter=1|isbn=0-415-00641-4|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o-wNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PP1|access-date=2009-06-18))</ref> Ideally, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within the community.

There are various [[Social theory|social theories]] concerning gift economies. Some consider the gifts to be a form of [[reciprocal altruism]], where relationships are created through this type of exchange.<ref>((Cite book|title=The Benefit of the Gift: Social Organization and Expanding Networks of Interaction in the Western Great Lakes Archaic|last=Hill|first=Mark Andrew|publisher=International Monographs in Prehistory|year=2012|isbn=978-1879621442|location=Ann Arbor|page=4))</ref> Another interpretation is that implicit "[[IOU|I owe you]]" debt<ref name="GraeberInterview">((cite web|url=http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/what-is-debt-%E2%80%93-an-interview-with-economic-anthropologist-david-graeber.html|title=What is Debt? – An Interview with Economic Anthropologist David Graeber|date=26 August 2011|publisher=[[Naked Capitalism]]|access-date=11 January 2012|archive-date=24 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924032744/https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/what-is-debt-%E2%80%93-an-interview-with-economic-anthropologist-david-graeber.html|url-status=live))</ref> and social status are awarded in return for the "gifts".<ref name="Pinchot, Gifford, The Gift Economy">[http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC41/PinchotG.htm Gifford Pinchot – The Gift Economy] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090718110639/http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC41/PinchotG.htm |date=18 July 2009 )). Context.org (29 June 2000). Retrieved 2011-02-10.</ref> Consider for example, the [[sharing]] of food in some [[hunter-gatherer]] societies, where food-sharing is a safeguard against the failure of any individual's daily foraging. This custom may reflect [[altruism]], it may be a form of informal insurance, or may bring with it social status or other benefits.

===Emergence of money===
Anthropologists have noted many cases of "primitive" societies using what look to Westerners very much like money, but for non-commercial purposes; indeed, commercial use may have been prohibited:

((blockquote|Often, such currencies are never used to buy and sell anything at all. Instead, they are used to create, maintain, and otherwise reorganize relations between people: to arrange marriages, establish the paternity of children, head off feuds, console mourners at funerals, seek forgiveness in the case of crimes, negotiate treaties, acquire followers((snd))almost anything but trade in yams, shovels, pigs, or jewelry.<ref name="ReferenceC">((cite book|first=David |last=Graeber|title= Debt: The First 5,000 Years|url=https://archive.org/details/debtfirst5000yea00grae |url-access=registration |isbn=978-1-933633-86-2|year=2011|publisher=Melville House )) Chapter 6</ref>))

This suggests that the basic idea of money may have long preceded its application to commercial trade.

After the domestication of cattle and the start of cultivation of crops in 9000–6000&nbsp;BC, livestock and plant products were used as money.<ref name = davieschrono>((cite book|author=Roy Davies & Glyn Davies|title=A Comparative Chronology of Money|url=http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/amser/chrono1.html|date=3 June 2012|access-date=3 June 2012|archive-date=14 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614172401/http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/amser/chrono1.html|url-status=live))</ref> However, it is in the nature of agricultural production that things take time to reach fruition. The farmer may need to buy things that he cannot pay for immediately. Thus the idea of debt and credit was introduced, and a need to record and track it arose.

The establishment of the first cities in [[Mesopotamia]] (c. 3000 BCE) provided the infrastructure for the next simplest form of money of account((snd))asset-backed credit or [[representative money]]. Farmers would deposit their grain in the temple which recorded the deposit on clay tablets and gave the farmer a receipt in the form of a clay token which they could then use to pay fees or other debts to the temple.<ref name="Schmandt-Besserat"/> Since the bulk of the deposits in the temple were of the main staple, barley, a fixed quantity of barley came to be used as a unit of account.<ref>Tymoigne, Éric & Wray, L. Randall (2005), [http://www.cfeps.org/pubs/wp-pdf/WP45-Tymoigne-Wray.pdf ''Money: An Alternative Story''] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200423033106/http://www.cfeps.org/pubs/wp-pdf/WP45-Tymoigne-Wray.pdf |date=23 April 2020 ))</ref>

Aristotle's opinion of the creation of money of exchange as a new thing in society is:

((blockquote|When the inhabitants of one country became more dependent on those of another, and they imported what they needed, and exported what they had too much of, money necessarily came into use.<ref name="Aristotle">((cite book|author=Aristotle|title=Politics I.IX|url=http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.1.one.html|access-date=5 June 2012|archive-date=5 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605100455/http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.1.one.html|url-status=live))</ref>))

Trading with foreigners required a form of money which was not tied to the local temple or economy, money that carried its value with it. A third, proxy, commodity that would mediate exchanges which could not be settled with direct barter was the solution. Which commodity would be used was a matter of agreement between the two parties, but as trade links expanded and the number of parties involved increased the number of acceptable proxies would have decreased. Ultimately, one or two commodities were converged on in each trading zone, the most common being gold and silver.

This process was independent of the local monetary system so in some cases societies may have used money of exchange before developing a local money of account. In societies where foreign trade was rare money of exchange may have appeared much later than money of account.

In early Mesopotamia copper was used in trade for a while but was soon superseded by silver. The temple (which financed and controlled most foreign trade) fixed exchange rates between barley and silver, and other important commodities, which enabled payment using any of them. It also enabled the extensive use of accounting in managing the whole economy, which led to the development of writing and thus the beginning of history.<ref>Michael Hudson, Cornelia Wunsch (Eds.) 2004, ''Creating Economic Order: Record-keeping, Standardization, and the Development of Accounting in the Ancient Near East'' ((ISBN?))((page needed|date=July 2023))</ref>

==Bronze Age: commodity money, credit and debt==

Many cultures around the world developed the use of [[commodity money]], that is, objects that have value in themselves as well as value in their use as money.<ref>((cite book
  | last = O'Sullivan
  | first = Arthur
  | author-link = Arthur O'Sullivan (economist)
  | author2 = Steven M. Sheffrin
  | title = Economics: Principles in action
  | publisher = Prentice Hall
  | year = 2003
  | location = Upper Saddle River, New Jersey
  | page = 246
  | url = https://www.savvas.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZu4y&PMDbSiteId=2781&PMDbSolutionId=6724&PMDbSubSolutionId=&PMDbCategoryId=815&PMDbSubCategoryId=24843&PMDbSubjectAreaId=&PMDbProgramId=5657
  | isbn = 0-13-063085-3
  | access-date = 27 October 2020
  | archive-date = 20 December 2016
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161220014709/https://www.savvas.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZu4y&PMDbSiteId=2781&PMDbSolutionId=6724&PMDbSubSolutionId=&PMDbCategoryId=815&PMDbSubCategoryId=24843&PMDbSubjectAreaId=&PMDbProgramId=5657
  | url-status = dead
  ))</ref> Ancient China, Africa, and India used [[cowry shell]]s.

The [[Mesopotamia]]n civilization developed a large-scale economy based on commodity money. The [[shekel]] was the unit of weight and currency, first recorded c. 3000&nbsp;BC,((Dubious|reason=Not supported by Cripps nor by [[Shekel]], either. True writing didn't exist yet c. 3000 BC, see [[proto-writing]], and Semitic languages were definitely still unwritten, so this date would be awfully early.|date=April 2020)) which was nominally equivalent to a specific weight of [[barley]] that was the preexisting and parallel form of currency.<ref name="Kramer, pp. 52"/><ref>Cripps, Eric L., [https://cdli.ucla.edu/files/publications/cdlj2017_002.pdf "The Structure of Prices in the Neo-Sumerian Economy (I): Barley:Silver Price Ratios"] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190906135810/https://cdli.ucla.edu/files/publications/cdlj2017_002.pdf |date=6 September 2019 )), 2007</ref> The [[Babylonians]] and their neighboring [[city states]] later developed the earliest system of economics as we think of it today, in terms of rules on [[debt]],<ref name="GraeberInterview"/> legal contracts and law codes relating to business practices and private property. Money emerged when the increasing complexity of transactions made it useful.<ref name=Sheila>Sheila C. Dow (2005), "[http://ideas.repec.org/a/mes/postke/v27y2005i3p385-391.html Axioms and Babylonian thought: a reply] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811183451/https://ideas.repec.org/a/mes/postke/v27y2005i3p385-391.html |date=11 August 2017 ))", ''Journal of Post Keynesian Economics'' '''27''' (3), pp. 385–391.</ref><ref>((usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110809114218/http://history-world.org/reforms_of_urukagina.htm The Reforms of Urukagina])). History-world.org. Retrieved 2011-02-10.</ref>

The [[Code of Hammurabi]], the best-preserved ancient [[law code]], was created c.&nbsp;1760&nbsp;BC ([[middle chronology]]) in ancient [[Babylon]]. It was enacted by the sixth Babylonian king, [[Hammurabi]]. Earlier collections of laws include the [[code of Ur-Nammu]], king of [[Ur]] (c. 2050&nbsp;BC), the [[Laws of Eshnunna|Code of Eshnunna]] (c. 1930&nbsp;BC) and the [[Code of Lipit-Ishtar]] of [[Isin]] (c. 1870&nbsp;BC).<ref name="yale2"/> These law codes formalized the role of money in [[civil society]]. They set amounts of interest on debt, fines for "wrongdoing", and compensation in money for various infractions of formalized law.

It has long been assumed that metals, where available, were favored for use as proto-money over such commodities as cattle, cowry shells, or salt, because metals are at once durable, portable, and easily divisible.<ref>I I Rubin, ''A History of Economic Thought'', translated Donald Filtzer, Ink Links, 1979 (original Moscow, 1929)</ref> The use of gold as proto-money has been traced back to the fourth millennium BC when the [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptians]] used gold bars of a set weight as a medium of exchange,((Citation needed|date=November 2009)) as had been done earlier in Mesopotamia with silver bars.((Citation needed|date=November 2009))

[[File:Square Shoulder Spade.jpg|thumb|180px|Spade money from the [[Zhou Dynasty]], c. 650–400&nbsp;BC]]

The first mention in the [[Bible]] of the use of money is in the [[Book of Genesis]]<ref>((Bibleverse|Genesis|17:13))</ref> in reference to criteria for the circumcision of a bought slave. Later, the [[Cave of Machpelah]] is purchased (with [[silver#History|silver]]<ref name=" Andreau">((cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZnhaVqk6siEC |author=secondary – [[Jean Andreau]] (Director of Studies at the [[École pratique des hautes études]], Paris) |title=Banking and Business in the Roman World |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521389327 |year=1999 |access-date=28 November 2020 |archive-date=24 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231224130316/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZnhaVqk6siEC |url-status=live ))</ref><ref>secondary – Encyclopædia Britannica &  French Dictionary (HarperCollins Publishers Limited 6 July 2010). Retrieved 2012-06-04</ref>) by Abraham, some time after 1985 BC, although scholars believe the book was edited in the 6th or 5th centuries BC.<ref>F W Madden, F W Fairholt – [https://books.google.com/books?id=ejUGAAAAQAAJ&dq=money+history&pg=PR1 ''History of Jewish coinage, and of money in the Old and New Testament''] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801193304/https://books.google.com/books?id=ejUGAAAAQAAJ&dq=money+history&pg=PR1 |date=1 August 2023 )) B. Quaritch, 1864 Retrieved 2012-05-04</ref><ref>J Free, H F Vos [https://books.google.com/books?id=wyKaVFZqbdUC&dq=archaeological+dating+of+Abraham+Bible+the+book+of+Genesis&pg=PA7 ''Archaeology and Bible History''] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315165153/https://books.google.com/books?id=wyKaVFZqbdUC&dq=archaeological+dating+of+Abraham+Bible+the+book+of+Genesis&pg=PA7 |date=15 March 2023 )) Zondervan, 1992, ((ISBN|0310479614)) – Retrieved 2012-06-04</ref><ref>F N Magill, C J Moose ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=haVoe4n0ifIC&dq=the+time+period+of+Abraham+Bible&pg=PA50 Dictionary of World Biography: The Ancient World] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315165153/https://books.google.com/books?id=haVoe4n0ifIC&dq=the+time+period+of+Abraham+Bible&pg=PA50 |date=15 March 2023 )) Taylor & Francis'',  2003 ((ISBN|1579580408)) Retrieved 2012-06-04</ref><ref>I M Wise – [https://archive.org/details/historyofisraeli00wise/page/1 <!-- quote=the time period of Abraham Bible. --> ''History of the Israelitish nation: from Abraham to the present time''] J. Munsell, 1854 Retrieved 2012-06-04</ref>

== 1000 BC – 400 AD ==

===First coins===
[[File:BMC 193.jpg|thumb|Greek [[drachm]] of Aegina. Obverse: Land turtle. Reverse: ΑΙΓ(INA) and dolphin]]
[[File:BMC 06.jpg|thumb|A 7th century one-third stater coin from Lydia, shown larger]]

((Main|Coin))
From about 1000&nbsp;BC, money in the form of [[Ancient Chinese coinage|small knives and spades made of bronze]] was in use in China during the [[Zhou dynasty]], with cast bronze replicas of cowrie shells in use before this. The first manufactured actual coins seem to have appeared separately in India, China, and the cities around the [[Aegean Sea]] 7th century BC.<ref name="Graeber">David Graeber: Debt: The First 5000 Years, Melville 2011. Cf. http://www.socialtextjournal.org/reviews/2011/10/review-of-david-graebers-debt.php  ((webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111210152420/http://www.socialtextjournal.org/reviews/2011/10/review-of-david-graebers-debt.php |date=10 December 2011 ))</ref> While these Aegean coins were stamped (heated and hammered with insignia), the Indian coins (from the Ganges river valley) were punched metal disks, and Chinese coins (first developed in the Great Plain) were cast bronze with holes in the center to be strung together. The different forms and metallurgical processes imply a separate development.

All modern coins, in turn, are descended from the coins that appear to have been invented in the [[kingdom of Lydia]] in [[Asia Minor]] somewhere around 7th century BC and that spread throughout [[Greece]] in the following centuries: disk-shaped, made of [[gold]], [[silver]], [[bronze]] or imitations thereof, with both sides bearing an image produced by stamping; one side is often a human head.<ref name="schaps">((cite journal |last1=Schaps |first1=David M. |title=The Invention of Coinage in Lydia, in India, and in China |journal=XIV International Economic History Congress, Helsinki 2006 |volume=Session 30 |url=http://www.helsinki.fi/iehc2006/papers1/Schaps.pdf |access-date=31 July 2018 |archive-date=12 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180712184842/http://www.helsinki.fi/iehc2006/papers1/Schaps.pdf |url-status=live ))</ref>

Maybe the first ruler in the Mediterranean known to have officially set standards of weight and money was [[Pheidon]].<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/earliestcoinsofg00garduoft/earliestcoinsofg00garduoft_djvu.txt Full text of "The earliest coins of Greece proper"]. archive.org. Retrieved 2011-02-10.</ref> [[Mint (facility)|Minting]] occurred in the late 7th century BC amongst the Greek cities of [[Asia Minor]], spreading to the Greek islands of the Aegean and to the south of Italy by 500&nbsp;BC.<ref name="Adkins"/> The first stamped money (having the mark of some authority in the form of a picture or words) can be seen in the [[Bibliothèque Nationale]] in Paris. It is an [[electrum]] [[stater]], coined at [[Aegina]] island. This coin<ref>((Cite web |url=http://www.snible.org/coins/bmc/attica/XXIII.jpg |title=Coin images |access-date=23 November 2009 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304032457/http://www.snible.org/coins/bmc/attica/XXIII.jpg |url-status=live ))</ref> dates to about 7th century BC.<ref>[http://www.snible.org/coins/hn/aegina.html Ancient coinage of Aegina] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131214607/http://snible.org/coins/hn/aegina.html |date=31 January 2017 )). snible.org. Retrieved 2011-02-10.</ref>

Herodotus dated the introduction of coins to Italy to the Etruscans of [[Populonia]] in about 550 BC.<ref>Giuseppe Amisano, "Cronologia e politica monetaria alla luce dei segni di valore delle monete etrusche e romane", in: ''Panorama numismatico'', 49 (genn. 1992), pp. 15–20</ref>

Other coins made of electrum (a naturally occurring alloy of silver and gold) were manufactured on a larger scale about 7th century BC in [[Lydia]] (on the coast of what is now Turkey).<ref>((Cite web |url=http://rg.ancients.info/lion/article.html |title=Goldsborough, Reid. "World's First Coin" |access-date=23 July 2008 |archive-date=17 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131117011653/http://rg.ancients.info/lion/article.html |url-status=live ))</ref> Similar coinage was adopted and manufactured to their own standards in nearby cities of [[Ionia]], including [[Mytilene]] and [[Phokaia]] (using coins of [[electrum]]) and [[Aegina]] (using silver) during the 7th century BC, and soon became adopted in mainland Greece, and the Persian Empire (after it incorporated Lydia in 547&nbsp;BC).

The use and export of [[silver coin]]age, along with soldiers paid in coins, contributed to the [[Athenian Empire]]'s dominance of the region in the 5th century BC. The silver used was mined in southern [[Attica]] at [[Laurium]] and Thorikos by a huge workforce of slave labour. A major silver vein discovery at Laurium in 483&nbsp;BC led to the huge expansion of the Athenian military fleet.

The worship of [[Juno Moneta|Moneta]] is recorded by Livy with the temple built in the time of Rome 413 (123)((clarify|date=January 2018)); a temple consecrated to the same goddess was built in the earlier part of the 4th century (perhaps the same temple).<ref>[[Douglas Harper|D Harper]] – [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=money etymology online] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071111012439/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=money |date=11 November 2007 )) Retrieved 2012-06-09</ref><ref>P Bayle, P Desmaizeaux, A Tricaud, A Gaudin – [https://books.google.com/books?id=ilAhAQAAMAAJ&dq=temple+of+Moneta+goddess&pg=PA639 The dictionary historical and critical of Mr. Peter Bayle, Volume 3] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801193303/https://books.google.com/books?id=ilAhAQAAMAAJ&dq=temple+of+Moneta+goddess&pg=PA639 |date=1 August 2023 )) Printed for J. J. and P. Knapton; D. Midwinter; J. Brotherton; A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch ... [and 25 others], 1736 – Retrieved 2012-06-09</ref><ref>P B Harvey, C E Schultz [https://books.google.com/books?id=paoDK0afIcIC&dq=Moneta+temple+Rome+123&pg=PA189 Religion in Republican Italy] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801193302/https://books.google.com/books?id=paoDK0afIcIC&dq=Moneta+temple+Rome+123&pg=PA189 |date=1 August 2023 )) Cambridge University Press, 2006 – ((ISBN|052186366X))  Retrieved 2012-06-09</ref> For four centuries the temple contained the mint of Rome.<ref>[http://www.romereborn.virginia.edu/ Rome Reborn – University of Virginia] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070617022141/http://www.romereborn.virginia.edu/ |date=17 June 2007 )) – [http://www.romereborn.virginia.edu/ge/TS-034-PA.html Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130412000559/http://www.romereborn.virginia.edu/ge/TS-034-PA.html |date=12 April 2013 )) Retrieved 2012-06-09</ref><ref name="Adkins">((cite book|author=L Adkins, R A Adkins|title=Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9JJdqJ8YGH8C&q=the+mint+of+Rome&pg=PA309|access-date=2012-06-09|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0195123328|year=1998|archive-date=24 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231224130334/https://books.google.com/books?id=9JJdqJ8YGH8C&q=the+mint+of+Rome&pg=PA309#v=snippet&q=the%20mint%20of%20Rome&f=false|url-status=live))</ref> The name of the goddess thus became the source of numerous words in [[English language|English]] and the [[Romance language]]s, including the words "[[wikt:money|money]]" and "[[wikt:mint|mint]]"

===Roman banking system===
((Expand section|date=August 2017))

==400–1450==

===Medieval coins and moneys of account===
((See also|Coin#Middle_Ages))
[[Image:Fiorino 1347.jpg|left|thumb|[[Florin (Italian coin)|Florentine florin]], 1347]]

[[Charlemagne]], in 800 AD, implemented a series of reforms upon becoming "[[Holy Roman Emperor]]", including the issuance of a standard coin, the silver penny. Between 794 and 1200 the penny was the only denomination of coin in Western Europe. Minted without oversight by bishops, cities, feudal lords and [[fiefdom]]s, by 1160, coins in Venice contained only 0.05g of silver, while England's coins were minted at 1.3g. Large coins were introduced in the mid-13th century. In England, a dozen pennies was called a "shilling" and twenty shillings a "pound":<ref name=pup2001>((cite book |last1=Sargent |first1=Thomas |last2=Velde |first2=Francois |title=The Princeton Economic History of the Western World: The Big Problem of Small Change |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=2001 |page=45))</ref> consistent with e.g. France.

[[Debasement]] of coin was widespread. There were periods of significant debasement in 1340–60 and 1417–29, when no small coins were minted, and by the 15th century the issuance of small coin was further restricted by government restrictions and even prohibitions. With the exception of the [[Great Debasement]], England's coins were consistently minted from sterling silver (silver content of 92.5%). A lower quality of silver with more copper mixed in, used in Barcelona, was called [[billon (alloy)|billon]].<ref name=pup2001/> The first European coin to use [[Arabic numerals]] to date the year in which the coin was minted was the [[Imperial Abbey of St Gall|St. Gall]] silver ''Plappart'' of 1424.<ref>((cite web| url = http://www.medievalcoinage.com/earlydated| title = Early Dated Coins, Accessed December 2009.| access-date = 22 October 2023| archive-date = 21 April 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230421080035/http://www.medievalcoinage.com/earlydated/| url-status = live))</ref>

[[History of coins in Italy|Italy has been influential at a coinage point of view]]: the [[Florin (Italian coin)|Florentine florin]], one of the most used coinage types in European history and one of the most important coins in Western history,<ref name="ilgiornale">((cite web|url=http://www.ilgiornaledellanumismatica.it/dossier-speciale-il-fiorino-di-firenze-breve-storia-del-dollaro-del-medioevo/|title=IL FIORINO DI FIRENZE, STORIA DEL "DOLLARO DEL MEDIOEVO"|access-date=4 October 2023|language=it|archive-date=5 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231005095053/http://www.ilgiornaledellanumismatica.it/dossier-speciale-il-fiorino-di-firenze-breve-storia-del-dollaro-del-medioevo/|url-status=live))</ref> was struck in [[Florence]] in the [[13th century]], while the [[Sequin (coin)|Venetian sequin]], minted from 1284 to 1797, was the most prestigious gold coin in circulation in the commercial centers of the [[Mediterranean Sea]].<ref name="Papadopoli">((Cite book|author=Nicolò Papadopoli Aldobrandini|title=Le monete di Venezia descritte ed illustrate da Nicolò Papadopoli Aldobrandini|year=2009|publisher="Progetto Gutenberg Piero Vianelli|page=136|language=it))</ref> The Florentine florin was the first [[Europe]]an gold coin struck in sufficient quantities since the 7th century to play a significant commercial role. The Florentine florin was used for larger transactions such as those used in dowries, international trade or for tax-related matters.<ref>((Cite book |last=Hollingsworth |first=Mary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJmUDQAAQBAJ |title=The Medici |publisher=Head of Zeus |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-78669-151-4 |language=en |chapter=A Note to the Reader |access-date=7 October 2023 |archive-date=15 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115115645/https://books.google.com/books?id=bJmUDQAAQBAJ |url-status=live ))</ref>

===First paper money===
((Main|Banknote))
[[File:圖7-70 最早出現的紙幣──交子印樣.jpg|thumbnail|right|Earliest banknote from China during the Song Dynasty which is known as "Jiaozi"]]
Paper money was introduced in [[Song dynasty]] China during the 11th century.<ref name="Headrick">((cite book|author=Daniel R. Headrick|date= 2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-988759-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/technologyworldh00head/page/n97 85]– |title=Technology: A World History|url=https://archive.org/details/technologyworldh00head|url-access=limited))</ref> The development of the banknote began in the 7th century, with local issues of paper currency. Its roots were in merchant [[receipt]]s of deposit during the [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907), as [[Four occupations#The shang (商)|merchants]] and wholesalers desired to avoid the heavy bulk of [[Chinese coins|copper coinage]] in large commercial transactions.<ref name=autogenerated1>Patricia Buckley Ebrey, and Anne Walthall, '' East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History''. (2006) p. 156.</ref><ref name="Bowman">Bowman (2000), 105.</ref><ref name="gernet 1962 80">Gernet (1962), 80.</ref> The issue of credit notes is often for a limited duration, and at some discount to the promised amount later. The jiaozi((clarify|date=August 2023)) nevertheless did not replace coins during the Song Dynasty; paper money was used alongside the coins. The central government soon observed the economic advantages of printing paper money, issuing a monopoly right of several of the deposit shops((clarify|date=August 2023)) to the issuance of these certificates of deposit.<ref name="ebrey 156">Ebrey et al., 156.</ref> By the early 12th century, the banknotes issued in a single year amounted to 26 million strings of cash coins.<ref name="gernet 80">Gernet, 80.</ref>

[[File:India in 1525 Joppen.jpg|thumb|left|The taka was widely used across South Asia during the sultanate period.]]
[[File:MauryanCoin.JPG|right|thumb|Silver coin of the [[Maurya Empire]], known as ''rūpyarūpa'', with symbols of wheel and elephant. 3rd century BC]]
[[File:French issued rupee in the name of Mohammed Sha 1719 1758 for Northern India trade cast in Pondicherry.jpg|thumb|The [[French East India Company]] issued rupees in the name of [[Muhammad Shah]] (1719–1748) for Northern India trade. This was cast in [[Pondicherry district|Pondicherry]].]]

In the 13th century, paper money became known in Europe through the accounts of travelers, such as [[Marco Polo]] and [[William of Rubruck]]<!-- Giljom de Rubruk -->.<ref>((cite book|last=Moshenskyi|first=Sergii|title=History of the weksel: Bill of exchange and promissory note|year=2008|isbn=978-1-4363-0694-2|page=55))</ref> Marco Polo's account of paper money during the [[Yuan dynasty]] is the subject of a chapter of his book, ''[[The Travels of Marco Polo]]'', titled "[[s:The Travels of Marco Polo/Book 2/Chapter 24|How the Great Kaan Causeth the Bark of Trees, Made into Something Like Paper, to Pass for Money All Over his Country]]."<ref name="Marco Polo">((cite book|author=Marco Polo|title=The Travels of Marco Polo, a Venetian, in the Thirteenth Century: Being a Description, by that Early Traveller, of Remarkable Places and Things, in the Eastern Parts of the World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JetQAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA353|access-date=19 September 2012|year=1818|pages=353–355|archive-date=1 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701100424/https://books.google.com/books?id=JetQAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA353|url-status=live))</ref> In [[Middle Ages|medieval]] [[Italy]] and [[Count of Flanders|Flanders]], because of the insecurity and impracticality of transporting large sums of money over long distances, money traders started using [[promissory note]]s. In the beginning these were personally registered, but they soon became a written order to pay the amount to whoever had it in their possession.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=YermphJSixkC&pg=PT22 The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire – Neil Irwin – Google Books]</ref> These notes can be seen as a predecessor to regular banknotes.<ref>De Geschiedenis van het Geld (the History of Money), 1992, Teleac, p. 96</ref>

===Trade bills of exchange===
Bills of exchange became prevalent with the expansion of European trade toward the end of the Middle Ages. A flourishing Italian wholesale trade in cloth, woolen clothing, wine, tin and other commodities was heavily dependent on credit for its rapid expansion. Goods were supplied to a buyer against a bill of exchange, which constituted the buyer's promise to make payment at some specified future date. Provided that the buyer was reputable or the bill was endorsed by a credible guarantor, the seller could then present the bill to a merchant banker and redeem it in money at a discounted value before it actually became due. The main purpose of these bills nevertheless was, that traveling with cash was particularly dangerous at the time. A deposit could be made with a banker in one town, in turn a bill of exchange was handed out, that could be redeemed in another town.

These bills could also be used as a form of payment by the seller to make additional purchases from his own suppliers. Thus, the bills – an early form of credit – became both a medium of exchange and a medium for storage of value. Like the loans made by the Egyptian grain banks, this trade credit became a significant source for the creation of new money. In England, bills of exchange became an important form of credit and money during last quarter of the 18th century and the first quarter of the 19th century before banknotes, checks and cash credit lines were widely available.<ref>Davies, Glyn, [http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/llyfr.html ‘’A History of Money’’] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101063926/http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/llyfr.html |date=1 January 2011 )), University of Wales, 1994, pp. 172, 339. ((ISBN|0-7083-1717-0))</ref>

===Islamic Golden Age===
At around the same time in the [[Islamic Golden Age|medieval Islamic world]], a vigorous monetary economy was created during the 7th–12th centuries on the basis of the expanding levels of circulation of a stable high-value currency (the [[dinar]]). Innovations introduced by Muslim economists, traders and merchants include the earliest uses of [[Credit (finance)|credit]],<ref name=Banaji>((cite journal |last=Banaji |first=Jairus |year=2007 |title=Islam, the Mediterranean and the Rise of Capitalism |journal=Historical Materialism |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=47–74 |issn=1465-4466 |doi=10.1163/156920607X171591 |oclc=440360743 |url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/15983/1/Islam%20and%20capitalism.pdf |access-date=28 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412055545/https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/15983/1/Islam%20and%20capitalism.pdf |archive-date=12 April 2019 |url-status=live ))</ref> [[cheque]]s, [[promissory note]]s,<ref name="Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World: Illustrative Documents">((cite book|last1=Lopez |first1=Robert Sabatino |author-link1=Roberto Sabatino Lopez |last2=Raymond |first2=Irving Woodworth |last3=Constable |first3=Olivia Remie |title=Medieval trade in the Mediterranean world: Illustrative documents |series=Records of Western civilization.; Records of civilization, sources and studies, no. 52 |year=2001 |orig-year=1955 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |location=New York |url=http://cup.columbia.edu/bookpreview/978-0-231-12356-3/ |isbn=978-0-231-12357-0 |oclc=466877309 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309144011/http://cup.columbia.edu/bookpreview/978-0-231-12356-3/ |archive-date=9 March 2012 ))</ref> [[savings account]]s, [[transactional account]]s, [[loan]]ing, [[Trust law|trusts]], [[exchange rate]]s, the transfer of credit and [[debt]],<ref name=Labib>((cite journal |last=Labib |first=Subhi Y. |date=March 1969 |title=Capitalism in Medieval Islam |journal=The Journal of Economic History |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=79–86 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700097837 |issn=0022-0507 |oclc=478662641 |jstor=2115499 |s2cid=153962294 ))</ref> and [[banking institution]]s for loans and [[deposit account|deposits]].<ref name=Labib />

===Indian subcontinent===

In the [[Indian subcontinent]], [[Sher Shah Suri]] (1540–1545), introduced a silver coin called a ''rupiya'', weighing 178 grams. Its use was continued by the [[Mughal Empire]].<ref name="Mughal Coinage">((cite web |title=Mughal Coinage |url=https://www.rbi.org.in/currency/museum/c-mogul.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021005231609/http://www.rbi.org.in/currency/museum/c-mogul.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2002-10-05 |quote=Sher Shah issued a coin of silver which was termed the Rupiya. This weighed 178 grains and was the precursor of the modern rupee. It remained largely unchanged till the early 20th Century ))</ref> The history of the rupee traces back to [[Ancient India]] circa 3rd century BC. Ancient India was one of the earliest issuers of coins in the world,<ref name="Subodh Kapoor 1599">((cite book |author=Subodh Kapoor |title=The Indian encyclopaedia: biographical, historical, religious ..., Volume 6 |publisher=Cosmo Publications |date=January 2002 |page=1599 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q5ZM0nZXZEkC&pg=PA1599 |isbn=81-7755-257-0 ))</ref> along with the Lydian [[stater]]s, several other Middle Eastern coinages and the [[Chinese wen]].
The term is from ''rūpya'', a Sanskrit term for [[silver coin]],<ref name="Turner 1985">((cite web
|url= https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/soas/index.html
|title= A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages
|access-date= 26 August 2010
|last= Turner
|first= Sir Ralph Lilley
|author-link= Ralph Lilley Turner
|year= 1985
|orig-year= London: Oxford University Press, 1962–1966.
|work= Includes three supplements, published 1969–1985.
|publisher= Digital South Asia Library, a project of the Center for Research Libraries and the University of Chicago
|quote= rū'pya 10805 rū'pya 'beautiful, bearing a stamp' ; 'silver'
|archive-date= 28 August 2010
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100828231731/http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/soas/index.html
|url-status= live
))</ref> from Sanskrit rūpa, beautiful form.<ref>((cite web
|url= https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/soas/index.html
|title= A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages
|access-date= 26 August 2010
|last= Turner
|first= Sir Ralph Lilley
|author-link= Ralph Lilley Turner
|year= 1985
|orig-year= London: Oxford University Press, 1962–1966.
|work= Includes three supplements, published 1969–1985.
|quote= rūpa 10803 'form, beauty'
|archive-date= 28 August 2010
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100828231731/http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/soas/index.html
|url-status= live
))</ref>

The imperial [[taka]] was officially introduced by the monetary reforms of [[Muhammad bin Tughluq]], the emperor of the [[Delhi Sultanate]], in 1329. It was modeled as [[representative money]], a concept pioneered as paper money by the [[Mongols]] in [[China]] and [[Persia]]. The tanka was minted in copper and brass. Its value was exchanged with gold and silver reserves in the imperial treasury. The currency was introduced due to the shortage of metals.<ref name="scroll">((cite web|url=https://scroll.in/article/821406/demonetisation-lessons-how-tughlaqs-unplanned-currency-change-in-14th-century-india-led-to-chaos|author=Shoaib Daniyal|publisher=scroll.in|title=History revisited: How Tughlaq's currency change led to chaos in 14th century India|date=15 November 2016|access-date=2017-02-14|archive-date=15 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215114508/https://scroll.in/article/821406/demonetisation-lessons-how-tughlaqs-unplanned-currency-change-in-14th-century-india-led-to-chaos|url-status=live))</ref>

===Tallies===
The acceptance of symbolic forms of money meant that a symbol could be used to represent something of value that was available in physical storage somewhere else in space, such as grain in the warehouse; or something of value that would be available later, such as a promissory note or [[bill of exchange]], a document ordering someone to pay a certain sum of money to another on a specific date or when certain conditions have been fulfilled.

In the 12th century, the English monarchy introduced an early version of the bill of exchange in the form of a notched piece of wood known as a [[tally stick]]. Tallies originally came into use at a time when paper was rare and costly, but their use persisted until the early 19th century, even after paper money had become prevalent. The notches denoted various amounts of taxes payable to the Crown. Initially tallies were simply a form of receipt to the taxpayer at the time of rendering his dues. As the revenue department became more efficient, they began issuing tallies to denote a promise of the tax assessee to make future tax payments at specified times during the year. Each tally consisted of a matching pair – one stick was given to the assessee at the time of assessment representing the amount of taxes to be paid later, and the other held by the Treasury representing the amount of taxes to be collected at a future date.

The Treasury discovered that these tallies could also be used to create money. When the Crown had exhausted its current resources, it could use the tally receipts representing future tax payments due to the Crown as a form of payment to its own creditors, who in turn could either collect the tax revenue directly from those assessed or use the same tally to pay their own taxes to the government. The tallies could also be sold to other parties in exchange for gold or silver coin at a discount reflecting the length of time remaining until the tax was due for payment. Thus, the tallies became an accepted medium of exchange for some types of transactions and an accepted store of value. Like the girobanks before it, the Treasury soon realized that it could also issue tallies that were not backed by any specific assessment of taxes. By doing so, the Treasury created new money that was backed by public trust and confidence in the monarchy rather than by specific revenue receipts.<ref>Davies, Glyn, [http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/llyfr.html ‘’A History of Money’’] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101063926/http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/llyfr.html |date=1 January 2011 )), University of Wales (England), 1994, pp. 146–151 ((ISBN|0-7083-1717-0))</ref>

==1450–1971==

===Goldsmith bankers===
((main |Goldsmith banker))
[[Goldsmith]]s in England had been craftsmen, bullion merchants, money changers, and money lenders since the 16th century. But they were not the first to act as [[financial intermediary|financial intermediaries]]; in the early 17th century, the [[scrivener]]s were the first to keep deposits for the express purpose of relending them.<ref>Richards</ref> Merchants and traders had amassed huge hoards of gold and entrusted their wealth to the [[Royal Mint]] for storage. In 1640 King [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] seized the private gold stored in the mint as a forced loan (which was to be paid back over time). Thereafter merchants preferred to store their gold with the goldsmiths of London, who possessed private vaults, and charged a fee for that service. In exchange for each deposit of precious metal, the goldsmiths issued receipts certifying the quantity and purity of the metal they held as a bailee (i.e., in trust). These receipts could not be assigned (only the original depositor could collect the stored goods). Gradually the goldsmiths took over the function of the scriveners of relending on behalf of a depositor and also developed modern banking practices; [[promissory note]]s were issued for money deposited, which by custom and/or law was a loan to the goldsmith,<ref>Thus by the 19th century "[i]n ordinary cases of deposits of money with banking corporations, or bankers, the transaction amounts to a mere loan or mutuum, and the bank is to restore, not the same money, but an equivalent sum, whenever it is demanded". Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Law of Bailments (1832, p. 66) and "Money, when paid into a bank, ceases altogether to be the money of the principal (see Parker v. Marchant, 1 Phillips 360); it is then the money of the banker, who is bound to return an equivalent by paying a similar sum to that deposited with him when he is asked for it." [[Charles Pepys, 1st Earl of Cottenham|Lord Chancellor Cottenham]], ''[[Foley v Hill]]'' (1848) 2 HLC 28.</ref> i.e., the depositor expressly allowed the goldsmith to use the money for any purpose including advances to his customers. The goldsmith charged no fee, and might even pay interest on these deposits. Since the promissory notes were payable on demand, and the advances (loans) to the goldsmith's customers were repayable over a longer time period, this was an early form of [[fractional reserve banking]]. The promissory notes developed into an assignable instrument, which could circulate as a safe and convenient form of money backed by the goldsmith's promise to pay.<ref>Richards. The usual denomination was 50 or 100 pounds, so these notes were not an everyday currency for the common people.</ref> Hence goldsmiths could advance loans in the form of gold money, or in the form of promissory notes, or in the form of checking accounts.<ref>Richards, p. 40</ref> Gold deposits were relatively stable, often remaining with the goldsmith for years on end, so there was little risk of default so long as public trust in the goldsmith's integrity and financial soundness was maintained. Thus, the goldsmiths of London became the forerunners of British banking, and prominent creators of new money based on credit.

===First European banknotes===
[[File:Money 100 USD (4792018878).jpg|160px|thumbnail|right|[[US dollar|100 USD]] banknote]]
The first European banknotes were issued by [[Stockholms Banco]], a predecessor of Sweden's central bank [[Sveriges Riksbank]], in 1661.<ref>((cite book|last=Geisst|first=Charles R.|title=Encyclopedia of American business history|year=2005|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8160-4350-7|page=39))</ref> These replaced the copper-plates being used instead as a means of payment,<ref>Karl Gunnar Persson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=kYJtS1MdKlsC&dq=Swedish+banknote+history&pg=PA137 ''An Economic History of Europe: Knowledge, Institutions and Growth, 600 to the Present''] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801193302/https://books.google.com/books?id=kYJtS1MdKlsC&dq=Swedish+banknote+history&pg=PA137 |date=1 August 2023 )) Cambridge University Press, 2010, ((ISBN|052154940X)) – Retrieved 2012-06-03</ref> although in 1664 the bank ran out of coins to redeem notes and ceased operating in the same year.

Inspired by the success of the London goldsmiths, some of whom became the forerunners of great English banks, banks began issuing paper notes quite properly termed "[[banknote]]s", which circulated in the same way that government-issued currency circulates today. In England this practice continued up to 1694. Scottish banks continued issuing notes until 1850, and still do issue banknotes backed by [[Bank of England]] notes. In the United States, this practice continued through the 19th century; at one time there were more than 5,000 different types of banknotes issued by various commercial banks in America. Only the notes issued by the largest, most creditworthy banks were widely accepted. The scrip of smaller, lesser-known institutions circulated locally. Farther from home it was only accepted at a discounted rate, if at all. The proliferation of types of money went hand in hand with a multiplication in the number of financial institutions.

These banknotes were a form of representative money which could be converted into gold or silver by application at the bank. Since banks issued notes far in excess of the gold and silver they kept on deposit, sudden loss of public confidence in a bank could precipitate mass redemption of banknotes and result in bankruptcy.

In India the earliest paper money was issued by Bank of Hindostan (1770– 1832), General Bank of Bengal and Bihar (1773–75), and Bengal Bank (1784–91).<ref>((cite news|title=History of Indian Currency|newspaper=The Economic Times|url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/wealth/save/history-of-indian-currency-how-the-rupee-changed/articleshow/55635259.cms|access-date=6 October 2020|archive-date=24 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124042016/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/wealth/save/history-of-indian-currency-how-the-rupee-changed/articleshow/55635259.cms|url-status=live))</ref>

The use of banknotes issued by private commercial banks as [[legal tender]] has gradually been replaced by the issuance of bank notes authorized and controlled by national governments. The [[Bank of England]] was granted sole rights to issue banknotes in England after 1694. In the United States, the [[Federal Reserve Bank]] was granted similar rights after its establishment in 1913. Until recently, these government-authorized currencies were forms of representative money, since they were partially backed by gold or silver and were theoretically convertible into gold or silver.

==1971–present==
In 1971, [[United States]] [[President of the United States|President]] [[Richard Nixon]] announced that the [[US dollar]] would not be [[Gold standard|directly convertible to gold]] any more. This measure effectively destroyed the [[Bretton Woods system]] by removing one of its key components, in what came to be known as the [[Nixon shock]]. Since then, the US dollar, and thus all national currencies, are [[Floating exchange rate|free-floating currencies]]. Additionally, international, national and local money is now dominated by [[Virtual currency|virtual]] [[credit]] rather than [[wikt:real|real]] [[bullion]].<ref name="ReferenceA" />

=== Payment cards ===
In the late 20th century, [[payment card]]s such as [[credit card]]s and [[debit card]]s became the dominant mode of consumer payment in the [[First World]]. The [[Bankamericard]], launched in 1958, became the first third-party credit card to acquire widespread use and to be accepted in shops and stores all over the United States, soon followed by [[Mastercard]] and [[American Express]].<ref name="Stearns_Page1">((cite book|last1=Stearns|first1=David L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k2tTTBOImXMC&pg=PA1|title=Electronic Value Exchange: Origins of the Visa Electronic Payment System|date=2011|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-84996-138-7|location=London|page=1|access-date=19 March 2023|archive-date=28 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328155112/https://books.google.com/books?id=k2tTTBOImXMC&pg=PA1|url-status=live))  Available through SpringerLink.</ref> Since 1980, credit card companies have been exempt from [[U.S. state|state]] [[usury]] laws in the United States, and so can charge any interest rate they see fit.<ref>[http://www.fdic.gov/bank/analytical/bank/bt_9805.html The Effect of Consumer Interest Rate Deregulation on Credit Card Volumes, Charge-Offs, and the Personal Bankruptcy Rate] ((webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080924054000/http://www.fdic.gov/bank/analytical/bank/bt_9805.html|date=2008-09-24)), [[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation]] "Bank Trends" Newsletter, March, 1998.</ref> Outside America, other payment cards became more popular than credit cards, such as [[France]]'s [[Carte Bleue]].<ref>((Cite web|title=Credit cards: how do they work, advantages and downsides|url=https://banqo.fr/en/blog/credit-cards-how-they-work.html|access-date=2020-05-02|website=banqo.fr|language=en|archive-date=1 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201201075211/https://banqo.fr/en/blog/credit-cards-how-they-work.html|url-status=live))</ref>

=== Digital currency ===
The development of computer technology in the second part of the twentieth century allowed money to be represented digitally. By 1990, in the United States, all money transferred between its central bank and commercial banks was in electronic form. By the 2000s most money existed as [[digital currency]] in banks' databases.<ref>((Cite web |url=https://money.howstuffworks.com/currency6.htm |title=Forms of Currency: Electronic – How Currency Works &#124; HowStuffWorks |access-date=22 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190730143424/https://money.howstuffworks.com/currency6.htm |archive-date=30 July 2019 |url-status=dead ))</ref> In 2012, by number of transactions, 20 to 58 percent of transactions were electronic (dependent on country).<ref>((cite news | url=http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150724-the-truth-about-the-death-of-cash | title=The truth about the death of cash | date=24 July 2015 | first=Rose | last=Eveleth | publisher=BBC | access-date=4 December 2018 | archive-date=30 December 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181230074216/http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150724-the-truth-about-the-death-of-cash | url-status=live ))</ref> The benefit of digital currency is that it allows for easier, faster, and more flexible payments.<ref>((Cite web | url=https://www.motilaloswal.com/article.aspx/1131/Understanding-Digital-Money-and-Its-Importance | title=Understanding Digital Money – Advantages of Digital money&#124; Motilal Oswal | access-date=12 January 2020 | archive-date=12 January 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200112004716/https://www.motilaloswal.com/article.aspx/1131/Understanding-Digital-Money-and-Its-Importance/ | url-status=dead ))</ref>

===Cryptocurrencies===
((main|Cryptocurrency))
In 2008, [[Bitcoin]] was proposed by an unknown author/s under the pseudonym of [[Satoshi Nakamoto]]. It was implemented the same year. Its use of [[cryptography]] allowed the currency to have a trustless, non-fungible and tamper resistant [[distributed ledger]] called a [[Blockchain (database)|blockchain]]. It became the first widely used [[decentralized]], [[peer-to-peer]], [[cryptocurrency]].<ref>((cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/11/economist-explains-1|last1=S.|first1=L.|title=Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?|access-date=3 November 2015|work=The Economist explains|date=2 November 2015|archive-date=21 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821154511/http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/11/economist-explains-1|url-status=live))</ref><ref>.((Cite web|url=https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf|title=Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System|last=Nakamoto|first=Satoshi|year=2008|access-date=1 February 2018|archive-date=20 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140320135003/https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf|url-status=live))</ref> Other comparable systems had been proposed since the 1980s.<ref>((Cite web|url=http://blog.koehntopp.de/uploads/Chaum.BlindSigForPayment.1982.PDF|title=Blind signatures for untraceable payments|last=Chaum|first=David|year=1982|publisher=Department of Computer Science, University of California, Santa Barbara|access-date=1 February 2018|archive-date=3 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903023239/http://blog.koehntopp.de/uploads/Chaum.BlindSigForPayment.1982.PDF|url-status=dead))</ref> The [[Cryptographic protocol|protocol]] proposed by Nakamoto solved what is known as the [[double-spending]] problem without the need of a trusted third-party.

Since Bitcoin's inception, thousands of other cryptocurrencies have been introduced.

==See also==
((Portal|Numismatics|Money))
((div col))
* [[Axe-monies]]
* [[Central bank]]
* [[Commissary notes]]
* [[Money creation]]
* [[Monetary reform]]
* [[History of banking]]
* [[History of coins]]
* [[History of the rupee]]
* [[History of the United States dollar]]
* [[Manillas]]
* [[Trade beads]]
((div col end))

==References==
((Reflist))

==Further reading==
* Alvarado, Ruben, [http://wordbridge.net/wordpress/?page_id=106 Follow the Money: The Money Trail Through History], Wordbridge 2013.
* Bowman, John S. ''Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture''. (Columbia UP, 2000). ((ISBN|0231110049)).
* Dean, Austin. ''China and the End of Global Silver, 1873–1937'' (Cornell UP, 2020).
* [[Alexander del Mar|Del Mar, Alexander]]. (1885). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=LZ_RA9LMzF0C&q=earliest+history+of+money A History of Money in Ancient Countries from the Earliest Times to the Present]''. London: George Bell & Sons. ((ISBN|0-7661-9024-2)).
* Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, and Anne Walthall. ''East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History''. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006) ((ISBN|0618133844)).
* Eichengreen, Barry. ''Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression, 1919–1939'' (Oxford UP, 1992).
* Eichengreen, Barry J., and Marc Flandreau, eds. ''The gold standard in theory and history'' (Psychology Press, 1997).
* Ferguson, Niall. ''The Ascent of Money – Financial History of the World'' (2009) [https://archive.org/details/ascentofmoneyf00ferg online].
* Gernet, Jacques (1962). ''Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250–1276''. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ((ISBN|0-8047-0720-0)).
* ((cite book |title=Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing |year=2020 |author=Jacob Goldstein |isbn=978-0316417198 |publisher=Hachette Book ))
* Irigoin, Alejandra. "The end of a silver era: the consequences of the breakdown of the Spanish Peso standard in China and the United States, 1780s–1850s." ''Journal of World History'' (2009): 207–243. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40542758 online].
* Jevons, W. S. ''Money and the Mechanism of Exchange.'' (London: Macmillan, 1875).
* Kwarteng, Kwasi. ''War and Gold: A Five-Hundred-Year History of Empires, Adventures, and Debt'' (2014) [https://archive.org/details/wargoldfivehundr0000kwar online].
* [[Carl Menger|Menger, Carl]], [https://cdn.mises.org/On%20the%20Origins%20of%20Money_5.pdf "On the Origin of Money"].
* Richards, R. D. ''Early history of banking in England''. London: R. S. King (1929).
* ((cite book |title=Coined: The Rich Life of Money and How Its History Has Shaped Us |first=Kabir |last=Sehgal |year=2015 |isbn=978-1455578528 |publisher=Grand Central Publishing |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/coinedrichlifeof0000sehg )).
* Vilar, Pierre. ''A History of Gold and Money, 1450 to 1920'' (1960). [https://archive.org/details/historyofgoldmon0000vila_c6t2 online].
* [[Jack Weatherford|Weatherford, Jack]]. ''The History of Money''. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1997).
* [https://educounting.com/the-history-of-money-for-kids/ The History Of Money For Kids].

==External links==
((Commons|Money))
* [http://www.pierre-marteau.com/currency/converter.html The Marteau Early 18th-Century Currency Converter] A Platform of Research in Economic History.
* [http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/projects/currency.htm Historical Currency Conversion Page] by Harold Marcuse. Focuses on converting German marks to US dollars since 1871 and inflating them to values today, but has much additional information on the history of currency exchange.
* [http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2002/of02-303/OFR_02-303.pdf ''Gold'' in US Geological Survey]

((Portal bar|History|Numismatics|Business and economics))
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((DEFAULTSORT:History of Money))
[[Category:History of money| ]]
[[Category:Numismatics]]
[[Category:History of finance]]

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