Portal:Money

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The Money Portal

Euro coins and banknotes

Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are: medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value and sometimes, a standard of deferred payment.

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 money supply of a country comprises all currency in circulation (banknotes and coins currently issued) and, depending on the particular definition used, one or more types of bank money (the balances held in checking accounts, savings accounts, and other types of bank accounts). Bank money, whose value exists on the books of financial institutions and can be converted into physical notes or used for cashless payment, forms by far the largest part of broad money in developed countries. (Full article...)

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Oliver Christian Bosbyshell (January 3, 1839 – August 1, 1921) was Superintendent of the United States Mint at Philadelphia from 1889 to 1894. He also claimed to have been the first Union soldier wounded by enemy action in the Civil War, stating that he received a bruise on the forehead from an object thrown by a Confederate sympathizer while his unit was marching through Baltimore in April 1861.

Bosbyshell was born in Mississippi. His parents were of old Philadelphia stock, and he was raised in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. After briefly working on the railroad and then studying law, Bosbyshell enlisted in the Union cause on the outbreak of war. Following a brief period of service in the 25th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment, he joined the 48th Pennsylvania, remaining in that regiment for three years. He saw action in such battles as Second Bull Run and Antietam. He rose to the rank of major and led his regiment, but was mustered out upon the expiration of his term of service in October 1864, having been refused a leave of absence. (Full article...)

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The sovereign is a British gold coin with a nominal value of one pound sterling (£1) and contains 0.2354 troy oz of pure gold. Struck since 1817, it was originally a circulating coin that was accepted in Britain and elsewhere in the world; it is now a bullion coin and is sometimes mounted in jewellery. In addition, circulation strikes and proof examples are often collected for their numismatic value. In most recent years, it has borne the design of Saint George and the Dragon on the reverse; the initials (B P) of the designer, Benedetto Pistrucci, are visible to the right of the date.

The coin was named after the English gold sovereign, which was last minted about 1603, and originated as part of the Great Recoinage of 1816. Many in Parliament believed a one-pound coin should be issued rather than the 21-shilling guinea that was struck until that time. The Master of the Mint, William Wellesley Pole had Pistrucci design the new coin; his depiction was also used for other gold coins. Originally, the coin was unpopular because the public preferred the convenience of banknotes but paper currency of value £1 was soon limited by law. With that competition gone, the sovereign became a popular circulating coin, and was used in international trade and overseas, being trusted as a coin containing a known quantity of gold. (Full article...)

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... that American first lady Lou Henry Hoover secretly sent money to families in need during the Great Depression?
... that Frankie Saluto was a member of the Ringling Giants, a dwarf baseball team that raised money for charity?
... that a Virginia radio station built a house to raise money for operations?
... 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 a special legislative session to deal with the Real Estate Bank of Arkansas was not called because a third of the legislature owed money to the bank?
... that Neha Pendse, the lead actress of the Marathi film June, contributed some of her own money towards its production?
... that the song "Money" by the Drums was certified gold by the RIAA over a decade after its initial release?
... that even though a village said that it did not want a church, Indonesian politician Thoriqul Haq allocated land and money to build one along with a musalla?

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The following are images from various currency-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Tibetan "gaden" Tangka, undated (ca. AD 1840), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 2Tibetan "gaden" Tangka, undated (ca. AD 1840), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 3Huizi currency, issued in 1160 (from Money)
Image 4Banknotes of different currencies with a face value of 5000 (from Money)
Image 5Tibetan undated silver tangka (2nd half of 18th century) with eight times the syllable "dza" in vartula script,obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 6Punch-marked coins discovered from Chandraketugarh. (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 7Undated Kelzang tangka (1910), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 8Printing paper money at a printing press in Perm (from Money)
Image 9Money Base, M1 and M2 in the U.S. from 1981 to 2012 (from Money)
Image 10Song Dynasty Jiaozi, the world's earliest paper money (from Money)
Image 11A 640 BC one-third stater electrum 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 12Tibetan silver tangka with Ranjana (Lantsa) script, dated 15-28 (= AD 1894), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 13A check, used as a means of converting funds in a demand deposit to cash (from Money)
Image 14Tibetan kong par tangka, dated 13-45 (= AD 1791),obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 15Tenga of Muhammad Khudayar Khan, struck at the Kokand mint, dated 1862–1863 (from Kokand tenga)
Image 16Tibetan kong par tangka, dated 13-45 (= AD 1791),reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 17Tibetan undated silver tangka, struck in 1953/54, obverse. (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 18Tibetan silver tangka with Ranjana (Lantsa) script, dated 15-28 (= AD 1894), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 19Sino Tibetan silver tangka, dated 58th year of Qian Long era, reverse. Weight 5.57 g. Diameter: 30 mm (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 20Banknotes and coins (from Money)
Image 21Ancient Jewish coin, engraved menorah, from the Hasmoneon kingdom 37-40 BCE (from Money)
Image 22US dollar banknotes (from Money)
Image 23Undated Kelzang tangka (1910), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 24"Bent bar" minted under Achaemenid administration, Gandhara, c.350 BC. (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 25Paper money from different countries (from Money)
Image 26A hoard of mostly Mauryan punch-marked coins (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 27Tibetan undated silver tangka, struck in 1953/54, reverse. (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 28Tibetan undated silver tangka (2nd half of 18th century) with eight times the syllable "dza" in vartula script,reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 29Sino Tibetan silver tangka, dated 58th year of Qian Long era, obverse. Weight 5.57 g. Diameter: 30 mm (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 30A person counts a bundle of different Swedish banknotes. (from Money)
Image 31Athens 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 32Gold coins are an example of legal tender that are traded for their intrinsic value, rather than their face value. (from Money)
Image 33President J. K. Paasikivi illustrated in a former Finnish 10 mark banknote from 1980 (from Money)
Image 34A 1914 British gold sovereign (from Money)