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History of Money. Money is best described as a medium of exchange. The concept of Money has been around since the dawn of human civilization. Money allows an individual to trade what he has for what he needs or wants. Currently, there are over 150 currencies used worldwide. 70% of the monetary value in the world is denoted in the U.S. dollar, Euro, U.K. pound, Japanese Yen, and Chinese Yuan. BARTERING. Dawn of civilization: Obsidian, a glass-like volcanic rock, was one of the earliest forms of money. It was valuable because it could be fashioned into highly quality, versatile tools. 9000 BC: Humans began to grow crops and cattle. This, gave birth to “bartering”, where livestock and grain were exchanged for other items which were deemed essential or useful at the time. 2279 BC: The Ancient Babylonians defined the first guidelines for “money” and established a form of measurement called the “shekel”. COWRY SHELLS TO METAL COINS. 1300 BC: Cowry sea shells were used as money in areas as diverse as Africa, South Asia, Australia and Oceania. They were made up of either whole shells or were artificially shaped in pieces that were then worn as ornaments. 1100 BC: Early Chinese civilizations are credited for the first use of standardized currency in the shape of miniature, bronze casts of replica knives and spades. These casts eventually evolved into round shaped coins, with holes in the middle that allowed them to be strung together. 687 BC: Other civilizations started developing their own unique coins. The first official currency ever, was minted out of gold and featured a roaring lion’s head. It was issued by King Alyattes of Lydia, now part of modern day Turkey. 300 BC: The Roman Empire established its own currency, known as Denarius. These coins were mostly minted out of silver and depicted important symbolic images about the Roman Republic. PAPER MONEY. 118 BC: The Chinese issued the first ever leather banknote. It was made out of a rare white deerskin and its edges were painted with bright colours. 700 - 1100 AD: Paper notes initially appeared in the 7th Century, during the Tang Dynasty but their widespread use only became prevalent much later. 1661 AD: The first European banknotes were printed in Sweden by Stockholms Banco. They were redeemable against their stated amount of silver coins, held by the bank. CREDIT CARDS. 1946 AD: The first bank card, named was introduced in 1946 by John Biggins, a banker in Brooklyn. When a customer used it for a purchase, the bill was forwarded to Biggins’ bank. The bank reimbursed the merchant and then obtained payment from the customer. 1950 AD: The Diners Club released its first card and was used in more than 20 restaurants in New-York to pay for bills without the need for cash. 1958 AD: A credit card with revolving credit was issued by Bank of America. American Express was launched and was the first card to be accepted worldwide. 1970 AD: The magnetic strip was perfected and allowed for personal and financial information to be reliably decoded by a machine. ELECTRONIC MONEY. 1990 AD: Chip technology was introduced. This allowed for large amounts of information to be stored and for verification processes to occur at the points of sales. 1994 AD: The advent of the World Wide Web server and browser gave birth to the online shopping ecosystem. 1997 AD: European banks began to offer mobile banking with primitive versions of smart phones. 1998 AD: PayPal was founded in California and it allowed its members to leverage the medium of the internet to make payments and transfer money. CRYPTOCURRENCIES. 2008 AD: An entity known as Satoshi Nakamoto posted a paper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System”. 2012 AD: Another cryptocurrency known as Ripple was created. It aims to enable secure, instant and nearly free global financial transactions of any size with no chargebacks. 2016 AD: Bitcoin and blockchain-related technologies start permeating in the mainstream media. Thank You.