Coins and Paper Money 

Metals objects were introduced as money around 5000 B.C. By 700 BC, the Lydians became the 

first in the Western world to make coins. Countries were soon minting their own series of coins 

with specific values. Metal was used because it was readily available, easy to work with and 

could be recycled. Since coins were given a certain value, it became easier to compare the cost 

of items people wanted.  

Some of the earliest known paper money dates back to China, where the issue of paper money 

became common from about AD 960 onwards.  

Representative Money 

With the introduction of paper currency and non-precious coinage, commodity money evolved 

into representative money. This meant that what money itself was made and no longer had to 

be very valuable.  

Representative money was backed by a government or bank's promise to exchange it for a 

certain amount of silver or gold. For example, the old British Pound bill or Pound Sterling was 

once guaranteed to be redeemable for a pound of sterling silver.  

For most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the majority of currencies were based on 

representative money through the use of the gold standard.  

Fiat Money 

Representative money has now been replaced by fiat money. Fiat is the Latin word for "let it be 

done". Money is now given value by a government fiat or decree, in other words enforceable 

legal tender laws were made. By law the refusal of "legal tender" money in favor of some other 

form of payment is illegal.  

$$$ 

The origin of the "$" money sign is not certain. Many historians trace the $ money sign to either 

the Mexican or Spanish "P's" for pesos, or piastres, or pieces of eight. The study of old 

manuscripts shows that the "S," gradually came to be written over the "P," looking very much 

like the "$" mark.  

Evolution 

The evolution of money supports the standards of which society as a whole has to remedy. 

Simple principles have been given up to convert the real meaning of “GOLD STANDARD” to 

currencies.  Are we deviating or just acknowledging that the times are changing and there are 

just not enough precious metals to support the world. Our economy rests on the value of a 

standard that conceptually could run out. What happens then? Plastic seems to of short term 

given a sense of compassion to that of not being sure. What would happen if the world was to 

regress to a share and share alike world? We are in desperate need of answering this now.  

                                                                                             Steven D Shook 

                                                                                             WWW.MROYC.COM