If you're interested in reading more on the origin of money, you could read "Debt: The First 5000 Years" by David Graeber. He is an anthropologist, not an economist, and details the role it played in ancient societies. One of the biggest insights I took from the book was the central role that ancient temples played in grain storage and trading, tax collection, and providing loans. And also that the idea that "before money we used to barter" is a myth.
The thought that came to mind was that the coins in the Colorado case were still valid money, but the choice to use coins brought an unacceptable extra cost to the recipient. It's kinda like saying I'll paypal you some money I owe you but I'm going to make you pay the processing fee, or I'll write you 200 checks. Either way I'm putting enough of a burden on you that you're not really getting the full value by the time you jump through all the hoops.
Yah, and some restaurants refuse to accept cash, and others refuse to accept cards. But I find that to have interesting implications for how "money" works in our society.
I am grateful to you for your practice of disciplined interest. By researching, considering, summarizing and presenting it in an attractive way you model the joy of education. Well done, so say we all.
If you're interested in reading more on the origin of money, you could read "Debt: The First 5000 Years" by David Graeber. He is an anthropologist, not an economist, and details the role it played in ancient societies. One of the biggest insights I took from the book was the central role that ancient temples played in grain storage and trading, tax collection, and providing loans. And also that the idea that "before money we used to barter" is a myth.
It's on my list after I finish getting through The Dawn of Everything! I also quite enjoy James C Scott'd writing
As far as interesting forms of historical currency, one of the oddest IMHO are rai stones which I think I first read about in the Graber Debt book mentioned in another comment: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20180502-the-tiny-island-with-human-sized-money
Oh wow that is really interesting, thanks for sharing and I'm definitely bumping Debt up my to read list! Thanks for sharing 🙏
The thought that came to mind was that the coins in the Colorado case were still valid money, but the choice to use coins brought an unacceptable extra cost to the recipient. It's kinda like saying I'll paypal you some money I owe you but I'm going to make you pay the processing fee, or I'll write you 200 checks. Either way I'm putting enough of a burden on you that you're not really getting the full value by the time you jump through all the hoops.
Yah, and some restaurants refuse to accept cash, and others refuse to accept cards. But I find that to have interesting implications for how "money" works in our society.
I am grateful to you for your practice of disciplined interest. By researching, considering, summarizing and presenting it in an attractive way you model the joy of education. Well done, so say we all.
Typo in the first sentence of "development of coinage"
That estabslihed
Thanks, I fixed it! I do run spellcheck, not sure how that got missed...