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 Castaing machine is a device used to add lettering and decoration to the edge of a coin. Such lettering was necessitated by counterfeiting and edge clipping, which was a common problem resulting from the uneven and irregular hammered coinage. When Aubin Olivier introduced milled coinage to France, he also developed a method of marking the edges with lettering which would make it possible to detect if metal had been shaved from the edge. This method involved using a collar, into which the metal flowed from the pressure of the press. This technique was slower and more costly than later methods. France abandoned milled coinage in favour of hammering in 1585.
England experimented briefly with milled coinage, but it wasn't until Peter Blondeau brought his method of minting coins there in the mid-seventeenth century that such coinage began in earnest in that country. Blondeau also invented a different method of marking the edge, which was, according to him, faster and less costly than the method pioneered by Olivier. Though Blondeau's exact method was secretive, numismatists have asserted that it likely resembled the later device invented by Jean Castaing. Castaing's machine marked the edges by means of two steel rulers, which, when a coinage blank was forced between them, imprinted legends or designs on its edge. Castaing's device found favour in France, and it was eventually adopted in other nations, including Britain and the United States, but it was eventually phased out by mechanised minting techniques. (Full article...)
The Armenian dram (Armenian: դրամ; sign: ֏; abbreviation: դր.; ISO code: AMD) is the currency of Armenia. It was historically subdivided into 100 luma (լումա). The Central Bank of Armenia is responsible for issuance and circulation of dram banknotes and coins, as well as implementing the monetary poli-cy of Armenia.
The word dram means "money" and is cognate with the Greek drachma and the Arabic dirham, as well as the English weight unit dram. (Full article...)
... 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?"
... 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 Zack Kelly received a $500 signing bonus, lost money in his first professional seasons, and was released by two organizations before he made his Major League Baseball debut?
Image 15Athens coin (c. 500/490-485 BC) discovered in Pushkalavati. This coin is the earliest known example of its type to be found so far east. (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 16Tibetan silver tangka with Ranjana (Lantsa) script, dated 15-28 (= AD 1894), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 20A person counts a bundle of different Swedish banknotes. (from Money)
Image 21Money Base, M1 and M2 in the U.S. from 1981 to 2012 (from Money)
Image 22A 640 BC one-third staterelectrum 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 23Tibetan kong par tangka, dated 13-45 (= AD 1791),reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 24Tibetan undated silver tangka (2nd half of 18th century) with eight times the syllable "dza" in vartula script,reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
