History of money

From the origins to the contemporary age

The history of money begins in the ancient world with the first coin issues of the eastern Mediterranean and develops into an organised monetary system under Rome. In the late Roman Empire and Byzantium, coin types, weight standards and units of account took shape that would influence medieval Europe for centuries.

In the western Middle Ages, Charlemagne’s reform established the Carolingian system, based on the pound, shilling and denier. This model underlies the later traditions of the Italian lira, the French franc and the British pound sterling, whose division into shillings and pence retained the same accounting structure.

In Central Europe, the Germanic monetary tradition developed around the mark, pfennig and thaler, while the real, escudo and peso predominated in the Iberian world. In modern times, some European monetary traditions have converged in the euro, adopted by the participating countries. Other currencies, including the pound sterling and the Swiss franc, remain separate.