COINSDaniel Ptashny

What is money?

Money = something of value that can be exchanged for something else

First money: Barter

ElephantLlama

HenGiraffe

Me You

What if I want a hen and you want a giraffe?Let’s trade!

Wait a second!

A giraffe is worth a lot more than a hen – what do I do! I can’t split up a giraffe!

Hey – let’s use gold and silver. Gold and silver are pretty, and people like them. They are also rare and you don’t need to use a lot to buy something. They aren’t worth anything by themselves, but if we want to we can consider them valuable.

What happened next

Other types of money

In other parts of the world, people used shells, knives, rocks and other objects as money!

Numismatics – the study of moneyNumismatics means the study of all money, from coins of Ancient Lydia to the paper banknotes of today. But, I am going to focus on coins in this presentation.

As a numismatist, I collect coins, but many numismatists sell coins, and some don’t have any coins at all!

Some world coins…