Portal:Money

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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Polymer banknotes are banknotes made from a synthetic polymer such as biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP). Such notes incorporate many security features not available in paper banknotes, including the use of metameric inks. Polymer banknotes last significantly longer than paper notes, causing a decrease in environmental impact and a reduced cost of production and replacement. Modern polymer banknotes were first developed by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and The University of Melbourne. They were first issued as currency in Australia during 1988 (coinciding with Australia's bicentennial year); by 1996, the Australian dollar was switched completely to polymer banknotes. Romania was the first country in Europe to issue a plastic note in 1999 and became the third country after Australia and New Zealand to fully convert to polymer by 2003.

Other currencies that have been switched completely to polymer banknotes include: the Vietnamese đồng (2006) although this is only applied to banknotes with denominations above 5,000 đồng, the Brunei dollar (2006), the Nigerian Naira (2007), the Papua New Guinean kina (2008), the Canadian dollar (2013), the Maldivian rufiyaa (2017), the Mauritanian ouguiya (2017), the Nicaraguan córdoba (2017), the Vanuatu vatu (2017), the Eastern Caribbean dollar (2019), the pound sterling (2021) and the Barbadian dollar (2022). Several countries and regions have now introduced polymer banknotes into commemorative or general circulation, including: Nigeria, Cape Verde, Chile, The Gambia, Trinidad and Tobago, Vietnam, Mexico, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Botswana, São Tomé and Príncipe, North Macedonia, Russia, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Morocco, Albania, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Israel, China, Kuwait, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, Isle of Man, Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, Libya, Mauritius, Costa Rica, Honduras, Angola, Namibia, Lebanon, the Philippines, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Samoa, and Bermuda. (Full article...)

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The Luxembourg franc (F or ISO LUF, Luxembourgish: Frang), subdivided into 100 centimes, was the currency of Luxembourg between 1854 and 2002, except from 1941 to 1944. From 1944 to 2002, its value was equal to that of the Belgian franc. The franc remained in circulation until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro. (Full article...)

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... that a group of parents discovered that a children's charity had been embezzling money?
... that Frankie Saluto was a member of the Ringling Giants, a dwarf baseball team that raised money for charity?
... that a TV station in Windsor, Ontario, was spared from closure even though it lost money for ten consecutive years?
... that the dark-money American Accountability Foundation aims to "take a big handful of sand and throw it in the gears of the Biden administration"?
... that Neha Pendse, the lead actress of the Marathi film June, contributed some of her own money towards its production?
... that Russian indie artist polnalyubvi bought her first guitar with money earned from busking with her violin?
... that Starbucks raised money for HIV/AIDS research using their red holiday cups?
... that a Virginia radio station built a house to raise money for operations?

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

Image 1Tibetan kong par tangka, dated 13-45 (= AD 1791), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 2Tibetan "gaden" Tangka, undated (ca. AD 1840), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 3Printing paper money at a printing press in Perm (from Money)
Image 4Song Dynasty Jiaozi, the world's earliest paper money (from Money)
Image 5President J. K. Paasikivi illustrated in a former Finnish 10 mark banknote from 1980 (from Money)
Image 6Sino Tibetan silver tangka, dated 58th year of Qian Long era, obverse. Weight 5.57 g. Diameter: 30 mm (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 7Ancient Jewish coin, engraved menorah, from the Hasmoneon kingdom 37-40 BCE (from Money)
Image 8Sino Tibetan silver tangka, dated 58th year of Qian Long era, reverse. Weight 5.57 g. Diameter: 30 mm (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 9Tibetan silver tangka with Ranjana (Lantsa) script, dated 15-28 (= AD 1894), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 10Tibetan undated silver tangka (2nd half of 18th century) with eight times the syllable "dza" in vartula script, reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 11Money Base, M1 and M2 in the U.S. from 1981 to 2012 (from Money)
Image 12Tibetan kong par tangka, dated 13-45 (= AD 1791), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 13Banknotes and coins (from Money)
Image 14Banknotes of different currencies with a face value of 5000 (from Money)
Image 15Tibetan undated silver tangka, struck in 1953/54, obverse. (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 16Tenga of Muhammad Khudayar Khan, struck at the Kokand mint, dated 1862–1863 (from Kokand tenga)
Image 17"Bent bar" of the Gandhara Janapda unearthed with Achaemenid and Greek coins, Gandhara, c.350 BC. (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 18Tibetan undated silver tangka, struck in 1953/54, reverse. (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 19Silver, ½ Karshapana coin, “Babyal Hoard” type, of the Kuru Janapada (450 BC - 315 BC) (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 20“Babyal Hoard” type, of the Kuru Janapada (350 - 315 BCE) (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 21Tibetan "gaden" Tangka, undated (ca. AD 1840), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 22Paper money from different countries (from Money)
Image 23A 1914 British gold sovereign (from Money)
Image 24A check, used as a means of converting funds in a demand deposit to cash (from Money)
Image 25Gold coins are an example of legal tender that are traded for their intrinsic value, rather than their face value. (from Money)
Image 26Tibetan silver tangka with Ranjana (Lantsa) script, dated 15-28 (= AD 1894), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 27Punch-marked coins discovered from Chandraketugarh. (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 28US dollar banknotes (from Money)
Image 29A hoard of mostly Mauryan punch-marked coins (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 30Undated Kelzang tangka (1910), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 31A person counts a bundle of different Swedish banknotes. (from Money)
Image 32Huizi currency, issued in 1160 (from Money)
Image 33Tibetan undated silver tangka (2nd half of 18th century) with eight times the syllable "dza" in vartula script, obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 34A 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 35Undated Kelzang tangka (1910), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)