The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 41, October 10, 2004, Article 19

THE EARLIEST MONEY

  Regarding our previous discussions about the earliest use
  of money,  Reid Goldsborough writes: "It's crucial when talking
  about early money and early coinage to keep in mind the
  difference between the two. In last week's E-Sylum the
  statement was quoted from a 30-year-old book that "It is
  generally conceded that China preceded the West in the
  invention and use of money."  The evidence doesn't support
  this.

  Not all money is in the form of coinage. Money has been used
  from the beginnings of civilization, in one form or another
  (seashells, beads, obsidian, and so on), to serve one or more
  of the functions of money (store of wealth, medium of exchange,
  and standard of value), and from before civilization as well.
  C. Opitz provides a comprehensive discussion of primitive
  money in his book An Ethnographic Study of Traditional
  Money: A Definition of Money and Descriptions of Traditional
  Money, First Impressions Printing, Ocala, 2000. D. Schaps
  offers an excellent analysis of the transition from primitive
  money to coinage in his book The Invention of Coinage and
  the Monetization of Ancient Greece, University of Michigan
  Press, Ann Arbor, 2004.

  On the other hand, the question of the first coinage is still, to
  some extent, undecided. There's simply not enough firm
  archeological evidence to make unassailable conclusions,
  though according to my reading what evidence there is
  continues to point to Lydia as the most likely source of
  coinage as we commonly understand it."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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