- Money may be said to consist of tokens which are commonly passed from hand to hand in exchange for goods or services. British currency is made up of the following metal coins and paper notes: the 1, 2, 5, and 10, coin the 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 pound notes.
- Earlier pieces of money, not now in use, were the guinea (a gold coin worth 21/-), the sovereign (a gold coin worth £1), the half – sovereign (a gold coin worth 10/-), the crown (a silver coin worth 5/-), the double florin (a silver coin worth 4/-), the halfcrown (a silver coin worth 4/-),.
- British money is coined at the Royal Mint in “Wales. The silver and bronze used are alloyed with metals such as copper, zinc and tin. This mixture helps to make stronger and more enduring coins. The alloy is then rolled into strips of the require thickness.
- Powerful presses stamp out blank discs from the strips. Next a machine is used to thicken and the edges. The edges of copper coins are made smooth, but the edges of some silver coins are milled (that is to say, they have grooved lines across them) and some are seven sided; the blank discs are then softened slightly by heating, and placed in a coining press which stamps the design on them. All coins are carefully examined and weighed before they leave the Mint.
- Long, long ago, when there was no money, people had many different ways of buying and selling. In the dark ages, a person’s wealth was judged by the number of slaves and cattle he possessed. Human Being, Horses, Cows, Sheep, Goats, and pigs were given exchange for exchange for other desired goods.
- A common and very early method of conducting trade was called barter. This form of business meant that a certain amount one kind of goods was exchanged for a certain amount of another kind. At this stage, people place a value on materials and objects according to the general need for them.
- Not only were useful things given and taken in exchange but also articles which were prized as ornaments. In many parts of the world, little shells such as cowrie shells and snail shells were valued and widely used as a form of money. A good example was the wampum used by the American Indians of North America. Wampum consisted of small beads made from certain small sea shell. Two colors of shells were used- Black & White; the black being the double the value of the white.
- Here are some strange forms of money used in the past: Solomon Islands – Porpoise Teeth; Fiji Islands –Whale Teeth; Abyssinia-Bars of Crystal salts, New Guinea – Tusks of Wild boar; China – tools such as spades, chisel, and knives; and some South Sea Island – red head dress feathers of the jungle bird.
- The Greeks were the first nation to introduce coin money among the ordinary people. It had only be in use earlier with the Egyptians. All Greek coins were of Silver.
- The Romans used silver and gold coins with designs stamped on them. Gold Coins alone were made of pure metal so that if they were cut up or melted they still retained their value. In Nigeria the currency used is the Naira and the Kobo and in the West Indies the dollar and cent.
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