Quote Originally Posted by unknownk View Post
Governments started currency actually. An old king put his symbol onto a lump of naturally occuring gold/silver amalgum making it legal currency in his kingdom (it was also weighed so each lump was the same as the others).

The barter system was around as long as humans were around. I would never consider salt as a currency because its value depended on where you live with respect to the sea (by the sea salt was mostly worthless, deep inland it was worth quite a bit since they needed it to preserve meat and fish and it wasn't easy to find). A coin was worth the same throughout the empire and most neighboring empires that traded with it.

The people who worship gold as currency need to remember that 99.9% of circulating coins of the ages were silver or copper/brass and even those were cut up to make smaller currency as needed (or gold dust was used). Only the very wealthy had gold coins for most of the time it was currency. You don't walk up to the Dollar store with a $10,000 bill and expect the girl to make change do you?
I guess the point that I was trying to make was that governments didnt take a barter system and then change it to a money system. The money system was already in place and then the government comes in and stamps someones face on the coin. The government, kingdom, empire, etc. didnt make a plan to go from barter to a money system and then stamp gold coins and tell everyone to use it as a medium of exchange. The people and the economy moved from a barter systems to money system in efforts to make life easier, not the planning of governments. Im just curious, which old king were you referring to.

From what I have read salt has been used in countries like Egypt as a form of currency. Remember a currency is anything that can be used as a 1. medium of exchange, 2. repayment of debt., 3. payment for goods and services, 4. and is widely accepted.



We both agree that gold can be used as a currency and that other metals can be used as a currency as well. There are 1/10 ounce gold coins that value around $200 and yes you probably wouldnt try to buy a hamburger with a gold coin but, it doesnt mean that gold isnt used as a currency. Just curious is the 99.9% that you are referring to quantity of coins or total value of coins?

Thanks for you post.