Currency! Where Did It Come From.

If you haven't noticed, society is slowly transforming into a cashless society but we are not as cashless as many European countries.  When I landed in Finland last summer, I was able to pay for my bus ride from the airport to the hotel with a credit card.  I did it when I boarded the bus.  I didn't have to purchase anything ahead of time.

Even the airlines require credit card payments for food, drink, or movies when on board.  Most, if not all, allow you to order certain things ahead of time if you pay by credit card. If things continue the way they are, we will have a cashless society at some point in the near future.  Have you ever wondered where coins and bills came from?

Historians believe that societies used the barter system long before actual currency was used which meant many societies established rules to allow fair trades.  In fact some societies began using tokens or coin like markers for the trades rather than hauling the actual item around with them.  Somewhere around  7000 BC, certain societies in Asia established a trade based on metals such as gold, copper, and silver.

By 3000 BC, Egypt and the Mesopotamia used gold bars as a monetary unit. Then come the 7th century in Lydia, a kingdom in ancient, the first coins made of a gold and silver mixture called eletrum.  The use of coins spread out from Lydia.  Along the way, china adopted the use of coins with Chinese characters but they were the first to adopt the use of paper money.  They used paper or deer skin to record long distance trade guarantees.

In addition, paper was so much lighter that the Chinese government recommended merchants who needed to carry large sums of money exchange coins for the paper to make transport much easier.  Paper currency did not make it to Europe until the 1200's and even then, it was not commonly used for another 300 years.  By the 1500's, it was common for merchants to receive promissory notes issued by banks upon receipt of coin deposits. 

In 1661, Switzerland became the first government to issue its own banknotes as legal tender and were issued to the bearer.  With the rise of state issued banknotes, counterfeiting also increased but it wasn't until 1826 that the first watermark was added to banknotes.  Paper notes came into use in the United States, when the Continental Congress printed its own bills or 'continentals' in 1775. 

The U.S printed its first dollars in 1786 and created the first mint in 1792 to make and distribute solid coins. The term dollar came from the Dutch.  It was the Civil War that caused the United States government to begin printing its own dollar bills for general circulation.

And the rest is history until today, we seem to operate with credit cards more than we use paper bills or coins.  Let me know what you think.  I'd love to hear.

14 Strange Currencies.

  If you remember your history, Long Island was bought for a handful of glass beads and trinkets.  I don't know if the story is true and it really doesn't matter.

Strange things have been used for currency in the past.  Lets look at a few:

1. The people of Yap used huge stones brought from Palau by canoe.  Its value depended on the number of people killed during transport.

2. The Romans used salt as currency.  Interesting fact, our word salary comes from the Latin term for salt.

3.  Back in 2008, Argentina ran out of coins, people used small candies such as tootsie rolls instead.

4. In ancient China, knives inscribed with their value were used until around 200 BC when their use was abolished.

5. Tea has been used as currency in Asia and been the preferred coin in remote places such as Siberia and Mongolia.

6.  In Ghana, iron snakes were a perfectly acceptable form of exchange among the Lobi people.

7.  At the time, Fiji became a British protectorate, the local official asked to be paid in whale teeth rather than gold because it was more valuable to him.

8. In the Republic of Congo the Katanga Cross was the standard.  The 2.2 lb cross was made out of copper and was worth 10 lbs of flour or 6 foals.

9. In certain parts of the world, a specific shell circulated among several countries in the Pacific as the local currency

10.  In Newfoundland, prior to the establishment of the first bank, people used dried cod as the preferred choice of exchange.

11.  In China, receipts for copper were used as currency rather than the actual copper.

12. Canadian Tire printed its own fake money as a way to cement customer loyalty and pretty soon businesses and ebay began accepting it.

13.  Potato mashers were the coin of choice by the Bafia people who used to live in Cameroon previously.

14. The criminal underworld sometimes uses liquid Tide as their currency.

There are quite a few more strange ones including furs, bit coin, etc but these I found the most fun. Let me know what you think.