Studio Brief 1 - History Of Money CAN POST

Just because money is in a form of a paper note with a historic figure on it or metal coin doesn't mean that its money in itself. In the grand scheme of things money, in and of itself means nothing. Money can be anything from a rock to a t-shirt. Money delivers its value by being an avenue of exchange and nothing to do with the physical value of money. Unlike bartering currency allowed the exchange of good to be made indirectly. It expresses a clear indication of the price of goods and gives the beholder the change the understand how much he has accumulated through the how much each piece of currency is worth and then is able to manage and save his currency for larger purchases in the future.

Bartering

In 600 B.C Lydia's King Alyattes minted the first official currency. Before this time a system of bartering was presumed to be used. Bartering is an relationship between two people, were each has something the other wants. It was the only form of direct trading at that time. It allowed people to agree on deals but this form of exchange was often a lengthy process and took time due to the direct contact between the person and the negotiation. The exchange between the two parties would look similar to this example. "I'll give you a stone axe if you help me kill a mammoth - but such arrangements take time. You have to find someone who thinks an axe is a fair trade for having to face the 12-foot tusks on a beast that doesn't take kindly to being hunted. If that didn't work, you would have to alter the deal until someone agreed to the terms." - investopedia.com/articles/07/roots_of_money.asp

Worlds oldest coin from the Lydia's King Alyattes era from 610-546 BC.

Asian Cutlery - First country to recognised coins

Around 1,100 BC the Chinese shifted away from using weapons and tools as an avenue of exchange and instead swapped their sharpe tools and weapons for miniature replicas of the same objects but casted in bronze. The larger tools became a constant source of injury, danger and burden to carry around as a source of currency. Therefore, these miniature replicates were less dangerous and and more effienct as a form of transport and therefore, become sort of the first idea of coins to be used.

The first mint: 7th century BC

The earliest known coins in the west came from InLonia, city of Ephesus in about 650BC (what is now Turkey). The metal was used for the coins was electrum, an alloy of silver and gold found locally in the city. With an image of a lion struck on one side of the bean shape coins the purpose of the metal coins was to ensure a steady value of the exchange of metal. By complete coincidences at this very same time in history, across the other side of the word the Chinese had produced the first bronze coin by pouring molten bronze into moulds. The coins weren't the typical round shape as the mint in the city of Ephesus produced them but instead they were elaborate shapes for ritual vessels.

Paper money in China: 10th - 15th century

In Europe paper currency made its first apperance in the 17th century but before then paper currency was first experimented with in China during the 10th century of the Five Dynasties period. By the 13th century China had substituted coins with paper currency. When Marco Polo visited the country in the 13th century he said "They are made with as much authority and formality as if they were of pure gold or silver, for many officials who are deputed for this write their names on every note, placing there each one his mark, and and when it is all done as it ought to be, the head of them deputed by the lord stains the seal entrusted to him with cinnabar and impresses it upon the note so that the pattern of the seal dipped in the cinnabar remains printed there, and then that money is authorized." http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=340#ixzz48ryJD6bW This demonstrated the legitimacy of paper currency as a form of legal tender as much as  pure gold and silver and how the currency by authorities and the mind to avoid counterfeit money.