BOOK REVIEW: CURIOUS CURRENCY

Hello! Today I am doing a little book review for a book called  Curious Currency: The Story of Money From the Stone Age to the Internet Age. The book is by Robert D. Leonard Jr. and is a synopsis of all the kinds of items and things that have been used to purchase and exchange for goods and to determine wealth. In other words: money. The chapters are 1) What is Money?, 2) Raw Materials, 3) Useful Articles, 4) Ornaments, 5) Customary Objects, and 6) Money Substitutes.

Chapter 2 discusses all the things such as rocks and gold, etc that have been used. One of the more odd things in this chapter is the British iron currency bars that weighed almost a pound. Chapter 3 has agricultural items, tools, drugs, pelts and skins, and spices. A funnier thing in this book is that Russian teachers in the Altai region were paid 15 bottles of Vodka a year when there was a currency shortage in 1998. Chapter 4 is about beads mainly, but also rings, necklaces, and arm and anklets. The oddest thing in here for me is the hippo teeth beads that are about 1 ½ inches wide and about 3 inches tall.

Chapter 5 has things such as nonwearable rings, odd shaped metal bars and rings, metal weapons, coins, animal parts, and human skulls. The weirdest thing in here for me is between the woodpecker scalps and elephant tails. Chapter 6 is all about paper money, checks, playing card money, wooden nickels, gambling tokens , and much more. The weirdest thing in here is clam shell money used in the 1930's.

Now that I gave away the book (hehe) I will give my opinion. The book is $13 so it's a bit cheaper or you can get your library to buy since, again, its cheaper. It is also 124 pages so it's pretty short but the font is bigger than most books and there are also a lot of visuals. The book is also put into sections so you with a limited amount of time to read, you can have a stopping place every minute or two.

Most of us coin and paper money collectors (money collectors) don't often stop and think to find out about all the other materials that have or are serving as money. That is where this book comes in. Here you get pulled into the world of... world currency. You learn about stuff never heard of to most people. The pictures are also great and interesting.

I hope you have now considered this book for your personal library.

To read the complete article, see:
BOOK REVIEW! AGAIN! (/www.money.org/collector/shriekengriffon/blog/book-review-again-)

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