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 particular 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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Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment in court for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which, when offered ("tendered") in payment of a debt, extinguishes the debt. There is no obligation on the creditor to accept the tendered payment, but the act of tendering the payment in legal tender discharges the debt.

It is generally only mandatory to recognize the payment of legal tender in the discharge of a monetary debt from a debtor to a creditor. Sellers offering to enter into contractual relationship, such as a contract for the sale of goods, do not need to accept legal tender and may instead contractually require payment using electronic methods, foreign currencies or any other legally recognized object of value. (Full article...)

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The two-cent piece was produced by the Mint of the United States for circulation from 1864 to 1872 and for collectors in 1873. Designed by James B. Longacre, there were decreasing mintages each year, as other minor coins such as the nickel proved more popular. It was abolished by the Mint Act of 1873.

The economic turmoil of the American Civil War caused government-issued coins, even the non-silver Indian Head cent, to vanish from circulation, hoarded by the public. One means of filling this gap was private token issues, often made of bronze. The cent at that time was struck of a copper-nickel alloy, the same diameter as the later Lincoln cent, but somewhat thicker. The piece was difficult for the Philadelphia Mint to strike, and Mint officials, as well as the annual Assay Commission, recommended the coin's replacement. Despite opposition from those wishing to keep the metal nickel in the coinage, led by Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1864, authorizing bronze cents and two-cent pieces. (Full article...)

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... that people are robbing Lebanese banks to get their own money back?
... that the façade of the Brooklyn Central Library was removed in an attempt to save money?
... that in the span of three days, a Florida man was approved by bankruptcy courts to buy TV stations in Roanoke and Lynchburg, Virginia, and then arrested on charges of laundering millions in drug money?
... that Martha Washington's portrait on the 1896 US one-dollar silver certificate is the most recent time that a woman has been featured on US paper money?
... 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 a Virginia radio station built a house to raise money for operations?
... that American first lady Lou Henry Hoover secretly sent money to families in need during the Great Depression?
... that medievalist Edward Rand rang the doorbell of Harvard president Charles William Eliot and asked him: "I would like to go to Harvard; do you have any money?"

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

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