Money

Money is a vital carrier of economic and political information: coins or banknotes typically not only convey the currency metrology of the polity where they were issued but also bear the image of eminent personalities associated with the history of the polity in question. Whether it be kings, prime ministers, scientists, authors, or emblematic flora and fauna—money imagery can tell us much about the mind-set of the place where it was issued, and about the evolution of monetary sovereignty therein. By no means linear, the evolution of money can nevertheless be roughly abstracted into six main stages: nonmetallic or commodity based; metallic protocurrency (hacksilver); coinage; bills (paper); fiat (bills without metal backing); and virtual (electronic). Money has taken both material and *digital forms to convey information about the value of goods. Intertwined with these discrete stages one invariably finds tension between private-order and state-issued (chartalist) currency, where the former derives from the need to facilitate trade and the latter is primarily aimed at enriching the rulers’ coffers (seigniorage). To this day, one cannot determine with certainty which of these two exigencies catalyzed the emergence of money to a greater extent