Although studies show that we are using hard physical cash less, money is still important. It feels good to have a few fivers and a tenner in the wallet and, you never know, there are still some places and circumstances where they do not take cards or only do if the purchase is over £5.
What made us, the human race, start to use money in the first place? It has got to the point where money itself is valuable. For example, Coin Dealers UK are always on the lookout for examples of rare coins to be sold to Numastists (collectors and archivists of currency). The experts are certainly in a good position to help you if you have some that you would like looking at. Find out more at https://www.gmcoins.co.uk
We use money as a way of getting things. This can be solid things like cars, food and gym equipment or it can be for services like plumbers, a ride on bus, or help with mortgage advice or for a resource such as gas or water. Either way, we have developed the use of money to replace a much more simple system, that of bartering.
Bartering is the offering and discussion of the transference of goods to someone for something in return. When we were all farmers in Neolithic times this was fine. It was a simple negotiation between people, “I’ll swap you 2 chickens for a bundle of carrots” for example, or “If you plough the top field I’ll give you a bag of seeds for your own plot”.
As time wore on it became increasingly impractical to trade this way and something had to change. Some would offer too much and end up losing out. Also, it was ridiculous to have to walk around with a full complement of poultry and produce just in case you decided you needed something on the journey home. Therefore, a much simpler system was employed where a value was placed on such items and a symbol would represent it.
This system was money and it was going to change everything. Originally this was commodity money, in other words the currency was made up of valuable metal in the first place, hence, gold coins but this changed to what we have now which is representative money that’s not worth the paper it’s written on!
