Toppling the money myths When carting cash about, spare a thought

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Feb 20, 2005

THEY say that money makes the world go round, but what made the earth spin on its axis before the invention of pounds and pence? Have we always used coins and notes and will we still be using them in the future? Kate West fires up her metal detector and digs up the story behind sterling and its historical counterparts.

That'll be 10 cows and 23 sheep, please For as long as humankind has existed, so too has the need to trade, buy and barter.

In order simply to survive, ancient societies had no choice but to swap something they had plenty of for something they didn't have but really needed.

This method of transaction is known as bartering. The earliest accounts of bartering go back as far as 9000 BC and mainly involved grain, cattle and animal skins.

Pass the money Salt was considered a very precious substance during Roman times.

In the absence of refrigerators, salt was used extensively to preserve food. It was so valuable that Roman soldiers were partly paid in coin-like tablets of salt.

Our modern word, "salary" comes from the Latin word "sal" meaning salt.

Early coins Shells, teeth and tools were used before coins became the way to pay. Almost 3000 years ago, the first proper coins were produced in Lydia, Asia Minor. However, it wasn't until nearly 300 years later when Alexander the Great explored far-reaching territories that the use of coinage really spread.

Clever Celts By 100BC the advanced Celts were using coins with a boar or a horse design embossed on them, but when the Anglo Saxons invaded, things took a backward step and coins ceased to be used in Britain for 200 years.

The first of the folding stuff The earliest recorded use of paper money was in the year 806 in China. It was introduced as a substitute for coins due to the distinct lack of copper supplies. Some 400 years later the explorer Marco Polo brought the idea back to Europe.

The wooden credit card You've heard of paying with plastic, well the same idea was used around 1160 but with wood.

Wooden tallies were sticks with notches cut in them showing how much a customer owed.

The stick was split lengthways and each party kept one half of the stick as a record of what was to be paid to the vendor at a later date.

One of the earliest credit cards as we know them today was developed by the Diner's Club in 1950s America and could only be used to pay for restaurant meals.

Decimalisation In 1971, maths got easier. Before this momentous year there were 12 pennies in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound.

Imagine using your fingers to add up your allowance with that system!

The hole in the wall The Automatic Telling Machine (ATM) as we know it today is over 30 years old. There was an earlier, non- computerised prototype made in 1939 but after trials the idea was shelved as it was rarely used.

Apparently only prostitutes and gamblers took advantage of the service as it meant they could avoid embarrassing face-to-face withdrawals inside the bank.

Is cash a thing of the past?

In recent years more and more ways to spend money without having to hand over physical cash have emerged.

Internet banking and buying with credit and debit cards has meant that cash is being used less and less.

New Zealand and some towns and universities in Britain were early guinea pigs with e-money cards - cards with high security chips that work on the top-up principle.

Customers charge their card with any amount they require and when popping out to buy the milk, they stick their card into the slot on the counter and the necessary amount is deducted.

This is now a widely used service in New Zealand and may yet take off in Scotland. But it will probably be a while before cash breathes its last.

Scottish sterling DID YOU KNOW. . . ?

Sterling has been around for 1300 years. Before the Act of Union in 1707, Scotland had its own money but upon joining with England, took on its sterling monetary system.

A total of three banks issue bank notes in Scotland.

They are the Royal Bank of Scotland, The Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale Bank. Meanwhile, south of the border, only The Bank of England is authorised to produce bank notes.

English pounds-1 notes ceased to be legal tender in 1988, however, Scotland has sustained the use of its own green-oners which are made only by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

fresh cuts The earliest bi-metallic pounds-2 coins have the Sir Isaac Newton quote "Standing on the shoulders of giants" inscribed around their rim. Some, however, sport an unfortunate misprint and read, "Standing on the shoulders of gants". Oops Piggy bank is an early play on words. Most pots were made from a type of clay called 'pygg'. Potters made money holders in the shape of the farmyard animal as a joke The Queen always faces right on coins and generally looking left on stamps The 1963 Great Train Robbery remains top of the money pile as Britain's biggest heist ever. The equivalent of pounds-40 million of today's money was stolen from the Glasgow to London mail train.