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2500 BCE
Ancient Egypt
Egypians made metal rings which some historians think they used as money. -
1100 BCE
China
By 1100 BC in China, a system of using miniature replicas of the objects to be traded. -
Period: 600 BCE to 700 BCE
Lydia
The first coins were made in Lydia. They were made of discs of electrum, that it was a mix of silver and gold. The first known gold coin was by the Lydian kinf Croesus. -
Period: 600 BCE to 700 BCE
China
In China the first paper money was used. -
Europe
By 1600 AD Europeans were using more and more metal coins, made with metal taken form their colonies. -
Canadian colonies
In 1685 Canadian colonies began to use paper money and this innovation led to a huge increase in international trade. -
Spain
In the 1700s a pirate walked into a shop he might try to pay in pieces of eight. A Spanish eight real coin was often split up into bits to pay for things. leaving the bits as change. -
End of the threepenny in the UK
The threepenny was only scrapped in 1971. In the English colonies of the West Indies half a real was four bits and a quarter was two bits, a phrase used by people in the USA today. -
Debit cards
In the modern world many people use plastic cards called debit cards. The cards transfer money from their bank account to the shop's bank account. -
Credit cards
People also use money they don't even have yet paying with credit cards. They then pay money back later.
