History of Money - Timeline

First Type of Currency: Made of gold and silver

Gold is kept in temples

Pre gold and silver, Cowries (used in Africa) and Wampum (used in America)

First loans made by temple priest

First coins made from Electrum (55% Gold and 45% Silver)

Coins made of pure gold and silver

Coinage is common throughout the Persian empire

First Roman bronze coins

Chinese coins made by molten bronze mounds

First emperor of China creates more rational, round coin

Greek introduces first depositing of money

In Rome debt can officially be discharged by paying the appropriate sum into a bank.

The stable currency of the Byzantine empire is a gold coin, the solidus

Frankish king Pepin III introduces a silver denarius, or penny, which becomes the standard medieval coin in western Europe.

New monetary scale of 1:12:20 (penny:shilling:pound) which prevails in much of Europe

Shillings and pounds later become European coins in their own right.