- The Chinese used cowry shells around 1,000 B.C. for trade; the Lydians in what is now Turkey were using the first stamped coins, made of electrum, by 600 B.C..
- Banks predated coins. The Mesopotamians had a system whereby citizens could "deposit" grain or cattle with temple granaries by 2,500 B.C.. By the time coins came around, there was a sophisticated accounting system in place that had primarily been developed to track taxes.
- The earliest use of printed paper money was in China in about 806 A.D.. This "flying money" was usually in the form of a letter of credit to be presented at a bank some distance away. Later, the Song Dynasty issued money that was used as currency, just like coins.
- Originally, coins were worth the value of the material they were made of -- usually gold, silver or electrum. Paper money was valued at the gold or silver a country had to "guarantee" its value. Today, money is worth whatever currency traders believe it is worth, and its value depends heavily on its country's worth and the amount of currency in circulation.
- Money today is often contained in electronic form, whether in credit cards, bank accounts or online virtual money. Money, which represents a good or service, is now itself often represented by a computer entry in a bank.
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