4 ms·

Are you sure about that statement? I’m not a historian, so I could be wrong, but my understanding is that currencies came very early, raw bullion wasn’t really

• scottiebarnes 4y ago
  Trade starts with bartering commodities and collectables. Metals start being used in trade. Gold, having superior stock to flow ratio, becomes the premier store of value. People hoard gold when they can, and get rid of the coins of lesser value. This is how you end up with the US government installing a military base over a huge stash of gold, called Fort Knox. They don't do the same for silver and copper.
• hgomersall 4y ago
  Right, written documentary evidence since Roman times shows that currency was measured by count not weight. There was a brief aside in medieval continental Europe when some influential policy makers misinterpreted Roman documents, but by that point the currency was well established. The value of the constituent metal is dictated by the price (in count) that the mint pays. Nobody pays less because you could go to the mint, and if anybody demands more, you just melt the coin. It was the count that gave value to the metal, not the other way round. The only evidence for currency from barter comes from the imagination of economists of a particular bent.