May
12
When countries repaced gold and silver coins with paper moeny exchangeable for certian amounts of precious?
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leslie j
metals, the mnetary system evolved from
metals, the mnetary system evolved from
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2 Responses to “When countries repaced gold and silver coins with paper moeny exchangeable for certian amounts of precious?”
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The question is terribly vague, so I’m not sure how to help you find the answer. The United States, and many other countries, used to operate under the gold standard, meaning that for every dollar a country held (or whatever currency) it had to have an equivalent amount of gold to back it up. Not so today. Today we operate under the confidence of the people that the money has any value at all. So long as we believe the money we hold in our hand has value, it does. Gold is no longer a factor.
Paper money originated in China during the Tang Dynasty (7th through 10th centuries on Western calendars). Apparently it was mostly a matter of convenience — paper was easier to carry than precious metal. Here’s a link about that…
At other times in history paper money has appeared when coins became scarce, for example, in times of war when people would save and hide coins to protect their wealth. During the American Civil War the government actually printed and distributed small paper notes to replace low denomination coins that had disappeared from circulation.
See for more about this.