The History of Money

Today,currency is a mixture of coins and paper money. But it wasn't always that way. Before people had metal coins and paper bills, they used a lot of unusual things for money. In one part of the world, for example, people used sharks' teeth for money. In some places, brightly colored feathers and rare seashells were money. People in one area even used the hair from elephant's tails for money. No one knows for sure when people started using metal coins for money. The oldest coins are over 2.500 years old, so we know that people used coins a very long time ago. At first, people used precious metals, such as gold and silver, to make coins. They stamped the shape of a person or animal on each coin to indicate its value. In the 13th century, people in China used iron coins for they currency. These coins weren't worth very much, and people had to use many of them to buy things. Because it was inconvenient to carry so many of these coins, the government started making paper receipts. People took these receipts to banks and traded them for coins. This was the first example of paper money.