Each person had his clay tablet, where were written all the transactions of him.

What was the system of transacting in Babylon and ancient Egypt?

Babylonians deposited their grain in state or church granaries. The receipts of deposit were then used as methods of payment in the economies. Thus, banks were invented before coins. The people brought their excess products to the temples of the walled cities and there, the priest-accountants opened an account for each person, with clay tablets, recording the deposit of their products in the temple's store-houses and establishing a quantity of abstract money corresponding to the merchandise deposited. Subsequently, if these same people wished to acquire other types of products from the temple, the inverse procedure was followed. For each transaction, a document made of baked clay was created, with the name of the buyer, the merchandise exchanged and the quantity of monetary units involved. This is what we call an «Invoice-cheque».
Ancient Egypt had a similar system, but instead of receipts they used orders of withdrawal - thus making their system very close to that of modern checks. What was used as money in China in 1200 BC?

The Chinese character for "money" originally represented a cowrie shell (a shell of a mollusc that was widely available in the shallow waters of Pacific and Indian Oceans). Cowries have been used as money in many different places at different periods. In parts of Africa they were used for this purpose as recently as the middle of the 20th century.

What were the manillas?

Manillas were ornamental metallic objects worn as jewellery in west Africa and used as money as recently as 1949. they were adopted for use as money in many ancient societies and civilisations.

What about the whales teeth?

Whales teeth were "tambua" (from which our word "taboo" comes) meaning that they had religious significance, as did the fei stones of Yap which were still being used as money as recently as the mid 1960s.

What does it mean "to pay through nose"?
This phrase comes from Danes in Ireland, who slit the noses of those who were remiss in paying the Danish poll tax. (800 - 900 AD)

What did Kirghizs use as money recently?

Until well into the present century the Kirghizs used horses as their main monetary unit with sheep as a subsidiary unit. Small change was given in lambskin.


THE HISTORY OF COINS

What was the reason of using of coins?

The barter system which was common before the coinage came in to play the primary role in history of trading, did not seem to be the right one for acquiring the goods that people needed at the time.