Portal:Money

The Money Portal

Euro coins and banknotes

Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are: medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value and sometimes, a standard of deferred payment.

Money was historically an emergent market phenomenon that possessed intrinsic value as a commodity; nearly all contemporary money systems are based on unbacked fiat money without use value. Its value is consequently derived by social convention, having been declared by a government or regulatory entity to be legal tender; that is, it must be accepted as a form of payment within the boundaries of the country, for "all debts, public and private", in the case of the United States dollar.

The money supply of a country comprises all currency in circulation (banknotes and coins currently issued) and, depending on the definition used, one or more types of bank money (the balances held in checking accounts, savings accounts, and other types of bank accounts). Bank money, whose value exists on the books of financial institutions and can be converted into physical notes or used for cashless payment, forms by far the largest part of broad money in developed countries. (Full article...)

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Aksumite currency was coinage produced and used within the Kingdom of Aksum (or Axum) centered in present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea. Its mintages were issued and circulated from the reign of King Endybis around AD 270 until it began its decline in the first half of the 7th century where they started using Dinar along with most parts of the Middle East. During the succeeding medieval period, Mogadishu currency, minted by the Sultanate of Mogadishu, was the most widely circulated currency in the eastern and southern parts of the Horn of Africa from the beginning of the 12th century.

Aksum's currency serves as an indicator of the kingdom's contemporary cultural influences and religious climate (first polytheistic and later Oriental Christianity). It also facilitated the Red Sea trade on which it thrived. The coinage has also proved invaluable in providing a reliable chronology of Aksumite kings due to the lack of extensive archaeological work in the area. (Full article...)

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Renminbi (/(ˈ)rɛnmɪnbiː/; Chinese: 人民币; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and the unrecognized territory of Wa State. The currency is issued by the People's Bank of China, the country's monetary authority. It is the world's fifth-most-traded currency as of April 2025.

The yuan (元) is the base unit of renminbi. Each yuan is divided into 10 jiao (角), and each jiao is further subdivided into 10 fen (分; a total of 100 fen in each yuan). However, fen-denominated coins are now rarely used due to inflation. The word yuan is widely used to refer to the Chinese currency generally, especially in international contexts. (Full article...)

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... that fake Buddhist monks scam tourists out of money to build non-existent temples?
... that Stephen Foster's best-selling song "Old Uncle Ned" made little money for him due to the many pirated publications circulating in the marketplace?
... that the first volume of a yuri manga was criticized for not having enough yuri?
... that while executives believed the Golden Rondelle Theater would be a waste of money, it was one of the 1964 World's Fair's most popular attractions?
... that modernist architect Paul Rudolph was said to have run out of money three times while designing the Modulightor Building?
... that Ivan I of Moscow earned the nickname "Kalita", which literally means 'money bag'?
... that even though a village said that it did not want a church, Indonesian politician Thoriqul Haq allocated land and money to build one along with a musalla?
... that barley was once used as a form of money?

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The following are images from various currency-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Song Dynasty Jiaozi, the world's earliest paper money (from Money)
Image 2President J. K. Paasikivi illustrated in a former Finnish 10 mark banknote from 1980 (from Money)
Image 3"Babyal Hoard" type, of the Kuru Janapada (350–315 BCE) (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 4Egyptian gold stater of Nectanebo II: reverse with hieroglyphs nfr-nb, minted in Egypt around 360 BC. (from Money)
Image 5A 1914 British gold sovereign (from Money)
Image 6A check, used as a means of converting funds in a demand deposit to cash (from Money)
Image 7Silver, ½ Karshapana coin, “Babyal Hoard” type, of the Kuru Janapada (450–315 BC) (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 8Tibetan "gaden" Tangka, undated (ca. AD 1840), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 9Gold coins are an example of legal tender that are traded for their intrinsic value, rather than their face value. (from Money)
Image 10Tibetan kong par tangka, dated 13-45 (= AD 1791), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 11A hoard of mostly Mauryan punch-marked coins (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 12Sino Tibetan silver tangka, dated 58th year of Qian Long era, reverse. Weight 5.57 g. Diameter: 30 mm (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 13Money Base, M1 and M2 in the U.S. from 1981 to 2012 (from Money)
Image 14Tibetan undated silver tangka, struck in 1953/54, reverse. (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 15Tibetan "gaden" Tangka, undated (ca. AD 1840), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 16Sino Tibetan silver tangka, dated 58th year of Qian Long era, obverse. Weight 5.57 g. Diameter: 30 mm (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 17Banknotes of different currencies with a face value of 5000 (from Money)
Image 18Tenga of Muhammad Khudayar Khan, struck at the Kokand mint, dated 1862–1863 (from Kokand tenga)
Image 19Undated Kelzang tangka (1910), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 20Tibetan undated silver tangka, struck in 1953/54, obverse. (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 21Tibetan silver tangka with Ranjana (Lantsa) script, dated 15-28 (= AD 1894), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 22Huizi currency, issued in 1160 (from Money)
Image 23Tibetan kong par tangka, dated 13-45 (= AD 1791), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 24Café in Delft accepting Bitcoin (from Money)
Image 25US dollar banknotes (from Money)
Image 26A 640 BC one-third stater electrum coin from Lydia. According to Herodotus, the Lydians were the first people to introduce the use of gold and silver coins. It is thought by modern scholars that these first stamped coins were minted around 650 to 600 BC. (from Money)
Image 27Tibetan silver tangka with Ranjana (Lantsa) script, dated 15-28 (= AD 1894), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 28Undated Kelzang tangka (1910), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 29Ancient Jewish coin, engraved menorah, from the Hasmoneon kingdom 37-40 BCE (from Money)
Image 30Paper money from different countries (from Money)
Image 31Tibetan undated silver tangka (2nd half of 18th century) with eight times the syllable "dza" in vartula script, obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 32A person counts a bundle of different Swedish banknotes. (from Money)
Image 33Tibetan undated silver tangka (2nd half of 18th century) with eight times the syllable "dza" in vartula script, reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 34"Bent bar" of the Gandhara Janapda unearthed with Achaemenid and Greek coins, Gandhara, c.350 BC. (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 35Punch-marked coins discovered from Chandraketugarh. (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 36Euro banknotes and coins (from Money)
Image 37Printing paper money at a printing press in Perm (from Money)