I often think about the fact that the objects we use to represent currency have no actual practical utility outside of their representation of “money”. But why did we begin using this system in place of exchanging good and services with one another? At what point did humans see fit that rounded metals and rectangular sheets of paper had an assigned representation of value that could be exchanged for goods and services?
In: Economics
The Lydians (a tribe of Greeks living in what is now Turkey) introduced the idea of coins of constant “value” in 600 BCE. They did this by making them a standard weight, so it was really just barter that was easier to do because you could count them rather than get out a scale and weigh them. There had been coins before that, but their weight was still their value and you had to weigh them to use them.
About 50-100 years later the Mahajanapadas in India started using “money” which was defined by marks on the object rather than weight. This was much lighter.
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