Hi everyone, I trust that the summer holiday is going well. I made a trip to the museum but focused particularly on the money gallery. It explained the introduction of currency, nonetheless, ranging to the possibilities of currencies becoming extinct with the new introduction of electronic payments such as 'Google Wallet'.
The Earliest Coins
The earliest coins originated from 650 BC, Lydia (modern Turkey), made from Electrum, they bared the Lion.s head, therefore it is viable to assume that, these coins were authorized by the King's of Lydia.
Detail of gold coin of Croesus Lydia (modern Turkey) about 600-550BC
These coins are often attributed to the legendarily wealthy King Croesus of Lydia, these coins also show part of a lion and face the forepart of a bull. Gold and silver coins were issued in several weights for different denominations.
Apothecary Tokens - Britain, 1666-9
Apothecaries sold medical treatments and gave people medical advice, tokens were issued in at least 100 towns, common designs include the arms of the Apothecaries' company and a pestle and mortar.
Commercial Bank 20 dollar note - Mauritius, 1839
Commercial banks were permitted to issue notes in the British colonies, although there were certain barriers due to the fact that British government had an idea that there would be bank collapses if notes were over issued as there would be a further result of inflation, this prediction was mainly developed from the banking crisis in the 1820's.
Do you suppose we are approaching the end of cash?
The first experiments involving electronic cash took place in the 1990's, however, since then, it is of course true that many new ways of payment such as debit cards, online banking, etc were introduced. Customers from 1995 had an electronic wallet to check how much money they had on their bank cards. Even though there were claims that the 'Mondex machine' would replace cash nationwide, the trials ended without a launch of the service.
'Wave and pay watch' - 2010
With the introduction of cashless payments, a new type of technology came into action, the wave and pay watch. This has a chip embedded where it was swiped against a special reader. Some manufacturers wanted to combine wearable apparel with the technology in order to make payments.
Google Wallet - 2012 aka Contactless Payments
The Google wallet software app allows payment card information to be stored, furthermore allowing customers to make quicker payments in shops at the point of sale by simply swiping or tapping the handset on a reader.
Do you think we are possibly approaching the end of cash and moving towards 100% electronic payments?Feel free to leave your opinion below.
