The fiat (government-backed cash/currency) in your pockets and clinking change in coins used as monetary media have their own intriguing history to boast. The first recorded
monetary system appeared in Mesopotamia around 3000 B.C., where silver and barley were used by Babylonians as universal mediums of exchange and units of account.
The Code of Hammurabi included a set of payment rules by which debts could be settled with either silver or barley. As time goes by, individuals’ status in the public eye was characterised by a monetary measure of their capacity to attain things of significant worth, rather than their capacity to inflict suffering. Money, then, made human settlements less vulnerable to bloodletting and chaos. As the world became more civilised, we saw the rise of three great ancient cultural centers: Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome.
Over the course of history, currency has been issued by those in power, be they rulers or democratically elected governments. We can see the stamps of authority of those rulers in power on the currency itself. The connection between unit of account and power runs deep, and the people know it. Just take a look at the bill in your wallet right now or the coin in your pocket. Even today, the stamp is there consistently to remind us.
To highlight an example: The gold and silver alloy coins thought to be the first minted currency — from the kingdom of Lydia in what is now western Turkey — notably bore a lion’s head insignia. This makes King Alyattes, presumed to be the sovereign behind these coins, likely to be the original author of a millennia-long association between artwork and currency, a practice that has lent these otherwise impractical inanimate objects great power, significance and perceived value.
Deuscoin
