As described in the earlier page, money or a form of exchange has always been around for exchange of goods or services.

The cowrie shell, or bartering, or any other form of exchange was not standardised between traders and another form of value was needed, so coins came into being, most commonly copper, silver or gold, each weighed exactly the same or very close, to each other, each had a different value, and the goods you bought were matched by the number of coins needed to buy the goods and service.

 

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Eventually these coins become cumbersome, can you imaging walking around with a bag tied to your belt filled with coins?, it could become a bit heavy and uncomfortable. Eventually these coins had paper note money added as another form of exchange. These are what we are familiar with today, although they have changed over the years to deal with counterfeiting and other problems with a paper money. Paper money has a value printed on its face, so its face value is what the government or authorities of the country say it is worth, e.g. R200 or R100, $10 or $50, but in reality, its face value is only a number as the value of the money is also regulated by inflationary forces and factors out of our control.

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But carrying loads of paper cash also became an issue, so this even evolved into plastic money, credit cards, debit cards or charge cards, which were either loaded with a credit value, or cash balance. Giving a line of credit, or electronic money which needs to be repaid or card recharged.

All of these currency or currency replacements are all controlled by a central controlling body,be it a central bank, a reserve bank or government. You are always indebted to the issuer of the currency.