Evolution of Money - Coinage

Bronze age brought world of opportunities to human race. Sophisticated tools made his day to day task easy. Humans were on a journey to make things simple. Out of that quest, Coins were brought to life.

Chronology of Coins and its usage:

Money in the form of 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.

The first ruler in the Mediterranean known to have officially set standards of weight and money was Phedion. 

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 BC.

The first stamped money (having the mark of some authority in the form of a picture or words) can be seen in Paris.

Advantages of Coinage:

This system solved all the problems of the barter system

With coinage, now individuals can store wealth(Perishable goods which were bartered will lose value)

Coins made trade easier

Disadvantages of Coinage:

Coins were heavy

Gold and silver were rare and precious, minting coins was costly.

This led to birth of paper money. Click here to continue reading about paper money

Did you know:

Silver was replaced with tin in the great roman empire. This led to decrease in value of money and increase in cost to buy goods and service. This was the first ever hyper-inflation known. After this hyper-inflation "The Great Roman Empire" was neither great, neither roman nor an empire.