The first known currency was apparently created by King Alyattes in Lydia, now part of Turkey, in 600BC.
The first coin ever minted features a roaring lion. Coins then evolved into bank notes around 1661 AD.
The first credit card was introduced in 1946.
No one knows for sure who first invented such money, but historians believe metal objects were first used as money as early as 5,000 B.C. Around 700 B.C., the Lydians became the first Western culture to make coins.
A commodity is a basic item that’s used by almost everyone in a given society.
In the past, things such as salt, tea, tobacco, cattle, and seeds were considered commodities and therefore, were once used as money.
However, using commodities as money created difficulties.
For instance, lugging heavy bags of salt or dragging recalcitrant oxen around could prove practical or logistical nightmares.
Using commodities for trade led to other problems as well, as many were difficult to store and could also be highly perishable.
When the commodity traded involved a service, disputes also arose if that service failed to live up to expectations (realistic or not).
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.
Metal was used because it was readily available, easy to work with, and could be recycled.
Soon, countries began minting their own series of coins with specific values.
Since coins were given a designated 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 issuing of paper money became common from about 960 AD.
Representative Money
With the introduction of paper currency and non-precious coinage, commodity money evolved into representative money.
This meant that what the money itself was made of no longer had to be of great value.
Representative money was backed by a government or bank’s promise to exchange it for a certain amount of silver or gold.
(Our commonwealth.)
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 19th and the early part of the 20th century, the majority of currencies were based on representative money that relied on 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Representative money has now been replaced by fiat money.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 its value by government fiat or decree, ushering in the era of enforceable legal tender, which means that by law, the refusal of “legal tender” money in favor of some other form of payment is illegal.
Origin of the Dollar Sign ($)
The origin of the “$” money sign is not certain. Many historians trace the “$” money sign to either the Mexican or Spanish “P’s” for pesos, or piastres, or pieces of eight.
The study of old manuscripts shows that the “S” gradually came to be written over the “P” and looking very much like the “$” mark.
Electronic Banking
ERMA began as a project for the Bank of America in an effort to computerize the banking industry. MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) was part of ERMA. MICR allowed computers to read special numbers at the bottom of checks that allowed computerized tracking and accounting of check transactions.
Bitcoin
Released as open-source software in 2009, Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that was invented by an anonymous person (or group of people) who used the name Satoshi Nakamoto.
Bitcoins are digital assets that serve as the reward for a process known as mining and can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services.
They employ robust cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets. Records of these transactions are known as blockchains.
Each block in the chain contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. Blockchains, by design, are resistant to data modification.
As of August 19, 2018, there were more than 1,600 unique cryptocurrencies available online, and the number continues to grow.
The Australian dollar is one of the strongest currencies in the world because it is a commodity-backed currency.
That’s why it hit a 29-year high against the US dollar – and it’s all related to the gold price.
The gold in Australia’s ground ,our Commonwealth, acts as the ‘gold standard’.
The gold standard is a monetary system where a country’s currency or paper money has a value directly linked to its gold.
With the gold standard, countries agreed to convert paper money into a fixed amount of gold.
A country that uses the gold standard sets a fixed price for gold and buys and sells gold at that price
COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA CONSTITUTION ACT – SECT 115
States not to coin money
A State shall not coin money, nor make anything but gold and silver coin a legal tender in payment of debts.
COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA CONSTITUTION ACT – SECT 81
Consolidated Revenue Fund
All revenues or moneys raised or received by the Executive Government of the Commonwealth shall form one Consolidated Revenue Fund, to be appropriated for the purposes of the Commonwealth in the manner and subject to the charges and liabilities imposed by this Constitution.
What is money ?
Sure It helps us get some of life’s intangibles — freedom or independence, the opportunity to make the most of our skills and talents, the ability to choose our own course in life, financial security.
With money, much good can be done and much unnecessary suffering avoided or eliminated.
But what is it and why is it worth anything at all ?
Are we still on the Gold standard ?
https://www.thestreet.com/how-to/what-is-fiat-currency–14947321
Two Australian economists, Steve Keen and Bill Mitchell, said.
The old theory, taught in high school economics classes and to university undergrads, is that banks receive deposits and loan out of a percentage of that money, while keeping some in reserve.
The truth, according to Professor Werner, is closer to the following:
A bank receives $100 from a depositor, keeps that $100 in reserve, and then creates $9900 worth of new loans and deposits.
It may also create $15,000 in new deposits through its lending.
This is a rough approximation.
The main point is that the banks do not lend existing money, but add to deposits and the money supply when they ‘lend’. And when those loans are repaid, money is removed from circulation.
Thus, the supply of money is constantly being expanded and contracted by banks – which may explain why the ‘credit crunch’ of the global financial crisis was so devastating. Banks weren’t lending, so there was a shortage of money.
By some estimates, the banks create upwards of 97 per cent of money, in the form of electronic funds stored in online accounts. Banknotes and coins? They are just tokens of value, printed to represent the money already created by banks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Money creation starts much the way you would expect.
A government agency like a central bank or a treasury puts in an order for more money to be printed.
Then, in a factory or mint somewhere, someone’s face is stamped on a bill or coin, turning previously useless paper or metal into valuable currency.
This money is then shipped to private commercial banks, who give it to the the rest of us when we make a withdrawal from our bank or ATM.
But that’s only a small part of the story. Roughly 3 percent of the story to be exact.¹
Banks hold your cash for you, in the form of deposits.
But banks don’t just look after money.
They also give it out, in the form of loans (including mortgages). And these loans are how most new money is made.
Confused? Let’s break it down.
Imagine you want to borrow £10,000 from your bank.
You wouldn’t just go into your local branch and leave with a big briefcase filled with cash (cool as that would be).
Instead, your bank will give you an electronic deposit, which means the next time you checked your bank account the number on the screen would be £10,000 higher than it was before you took out the loan.
This money is ‘real’ in the sense that you could walk into any shop and spend it, or withdraw it all from an ATM.
But it’s not ‘real’ in the sense that after they approved your loan application someone from the bank ran into some vault somewhere to grab ten grand worth of paper money and relabel it with your name. In other words, almost all the money that exists in our financial system is created when some numbers are programmed into a computer.
You may be wondering how this can be possible considering you could walk into your bank now, demand the entire contents of your account in paper money, and they’d have to give it to you.
The answer is because most people will never do this.
As long as almost all of us only keep a tiny percentage of our money in cash form, banks can meet all their customers’ withdrawal demands by keeping just a small* pile of notes and coins in-house.
Whenever someone wants ‘their’ money in cash form, the bank simply takes the requested amount of money out of this central pile and change the electronic number on the withdrawer’s bank account.
What is a Promissory Note?
July 22, 2018/in Debt and Bankruptcy Law /by LawAnswers Australia
A promissory note is a document that is written by one party promising to pay an amount owed to another party by a certain date.
This is also known as an IOU letter, payment on demand letter or payment on arrival letter.
This kind of document is used by people who want to have written evidence of a loan, but do not want to have a formal loan agreement drafted and signed by both parties.
This is commonly used for loans of money between family members or friends.
In Australia, promissory notes are usually governed under the Bills of Exchange Act 1909 (Cth).
However, if one becomes a complex financial product then it would be covered under the Corporations Act.
Promissory notes are legally binding whether the note is secured by collateral or based only on the promise of repayment.
If you lend money to someone who defaults on a promissory note and does not repay, you can legally possess any property that individual promised as collateral.
A promissory note, sometimes referred to as a note payable, is a legal instrument (more particularly, a financial instrument and a debt instrument), in which one party (the maker or issuer) promises in writing to pay a determinate sum of money to the other (the payee), either at a fixed or determinable future time or on demand of the payee, under specific terms.
The terms of a note usually include the principal amount, the interest rate if any, the parties, the date, the terms of repayment (which could include interest) and the maturity date.
Sometimes, provisions are included concerning the payee’s rights in the event of a default, which may include foreclosure of the maker’s assets. In foreclosures and contract breaches, promissory notes under CPLR 5001 allow creditors to recover prejudgement interest from the date interest is due until liability is established.
For loans between individuals, writing and signing a promissory note are often instrumental for tax and record keeping.
A promissory note alone is typically unsecured.
Use as private money.
Thus, promissory notes can work as a form of private money.
In the past, particularly during the 19th century, their widespread and unregulated use was a source of great risk for banks and private financiers, who would often face the insolvency of both debtors, or simply be scammed by both.
International law.
In 1930, under the League of Nations, a Convention providing a uniform law for bills of exchange and promissory notes was drafted and ratified by eighteen nations.
Article 75 of the treaty stated that a promissory note shall contain:
the term “promissory note” inserted in the body of the instrument and expressed in the language employed in drawing up the instrument.
an unconditional promise to pay a determinate sum of money;
a statement of the time of payment;
a statement of the place where payment is to be made;
the name of the person to whom or to whose order payment is to be made;
a statement of the date and of the place where the promissory note is issued;
the signature of the person who issues the instrument (maker).
As one can comprehend in todays age ,money definitely comes in many forms and values .
However how much is truly lawful legal tender ?
One thing is for sure based on what we see around us ,we can as a united people
Design and create any monetary system we choose.
https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-money-1992150
https://ccbjournal.com/articles/international-ucc-equivalents
http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/coaca430/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/uniform-commercial-code