The history of money begins around 2500 years ago with the first minting of coinage in about the seventh to sixth century BC. Money is any clearly identifiable object of value that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts within a market or which is legal tender within a country.
Since ancient times people have swapped items of value either in the exchange of gifts or else in markets where a commonly shared system of tokens is more convenient.
Many things have been exchanged in markets including, for example, livestock and sacks of cereal grain (from which the Shekel is derived) - things directly useful in themselves, but also sometimes merely attractive items such as cowry shells or beads were exchanged for more useful commodities. Precious metals from which early coins were made, fall into this second category.
Numismatics is the scientific study of money and its history in all its varied forms.
Read more about History Of Money: The Emergence of Money, Commodity Money, Trade Bills of Exchange, Tallies, Goldsmith Bankers, Demand Deposits, Banknotes, Fiat Money
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history and/or money:
“The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.”
—Willa Cather (1876–1947)
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“There are hardly half a dozen writers in England today who have not sold out to the enemy. Even when their good work has been a success, Mammon grips them and whispers: “More money for more work.””
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)