The United Nations currently recognises 180 currencies that are used in 195 countries across the world.
What was the first currency in the world?
The first known currency was created by King Alyattes in Lydia, now part of Turkey, in 600BC and the first coin ever minted featured a roaring lion. The design was unmistakable, it represented the city: the foreparts of a lion and a bull facing each other.
Lydia’s new currency boosted the country’s trade economy making it one of the richest empires in Asia Minor.
The wide use of the ‘Lydian Lion’ stamp showed these coins are the official tender of the king in his kingdom, something that has never been done before. Soon other kingdoms and empires followed and adopted their own seigniorage.
After a while, it became difficult to complete major transactions using large quantities of coins so in Ancient China they started using banknotes. The Chinese started trading with folding money during the Thang Dynasty and used it for more than 500 years before the practice began to catch on in Europe in the 17th century.
In Europe, the first issuer of paper money was Sweden, where in 1661 Johan Palmstruch’s Stockholm Banco introduced the first banknotes. Unfortunately, the bank subsequently overextended itself and had to call in government aid. Despite this example, other European countries soon followed the Swedish lead.
What are the most traded currencies in the world?
One currency is global when it is accepted for trade throughout the world. There are currencies that are accepted for most international transactions. The most popular are the U.S. dollar, the euro, and the yen.
Even though it doesn’t hold an official title as a global currency, the International Monetary Fund states that the U.S. dollar is the most popular in the world. The value of the dollar is supported by the relative strength of the U.S. economy.
World currencies symbols and signs explained.
Most currencies nowadays have its own graphical representation for their names. The symbols are often unique to a specific county or region.The U.S. dollar and British pound sterling for example have become instantly recognisable globally by their currency symbol.
The GBP uses the designation £ for the pound, and the US uses the $ symbol to represent a dollar amount, although other countries also use $ to represent their currencies as well.
Some countries use the same currency symbol. The dollar symbol, $, is used by many countries. To avoid confusion, other letters may be included to help distinguish which country’s currency is being represented, such as Can$ for Canadian dollar.
Knowing the currency symbols and signs is useful especially when traveling because you are likely to be using it while eating out or shopping.
The rise of the cryptocurrency.
The rise of technology development has made it possible for a new digital currencies to emerge, such as bitcoin and ripple, that are used as alternative to the the traditional money. There are more than 4000 cryptocurrencies currently available in the market, with bitcoin being the most popular and the most highly valued.
Cryptocurrencies are popular primarily because they protect the identity of the people using them.
The good news is Jeton supports the cryptocurrency payment method. You can learn more about it here.
Need to manage money in multiple currencies or countries? Jeton could help.
Managing multiple accounts can be complicated. And when you want to open a multi-currency account banks can sometimes charge an enormous fees.
With Jeton, opening multi-currency accounts is simple and free. You can manage and send different currencies all from the same account and all around the globe.
