samsamsam

The first modern gold Swedish coin minted in early 1500’s, square coins, triangle coins, super thick coins, paper thin coins, coins in a strip uncut, gold ingots, block coins which really are not coins. No one knows when and why the first coin was made, but obviously it became a popular display of wealth. I think the idea that gold and silver could be more precious than other metals was exploited by a very smart person, giving rise to this whole mess we today know as the economy.

The first silver coins in modern sweden


the first gold coin in modern sweden


the woman who came up with copper coins, which led to the copper plates


it started small, like ½ dalar and 1 dalar

when silver and gold became rare, they switched to copper. Sweden had one of the biggest copper mines in the world. And started making copper plates but still call them coins. And yes, they were as large as dinner plates, some even larger. The largest one in the world is 19.7kg on display. Me thinks if this was still the norm today, we will have a lot of problems with compulsive spending, just to get rid of the weight. Anyway, that large slab of metal was valued at 10 dalars, i.e. 270grams of silver. Talk about inflation.

these were themselves already huge


then came the mammoth


its freakin heavy at 19.7kg.

So because it was kind of stupid to lug along a 19.7 kg slab of copper around to the weekend market, banks came in to being. They gave out letters of assurance that certain number of copper plates or silver coins were kept in their office and could be exchanged for that piece of signed paper. 1657, Sweden’s first bank was established. It gave out the world’s first banknote. The guy running it tried to be smart and gave out more papers than he received copper slabs, and became a bankrupt (sounds a lot like ‘corrupt bank’, now that I think of it). Those times paper money was known as ‘transfer notes’. Maybe that’s why we have problems with compulsive shopping now, since its so much easier to bring money about. If it were too difficult, no one would bring it out to purchase anything.

and in america, where it was not formalized at first, every bank came up with their own currency


but coins were still popular, and came in various shapes, the square ones were pressed in strips and then cut.




with each different king, they changed the coins to reflect their image, so there's hundreds of differnt sets of coins


some are super thin


some are slightly thicker


some are really thick


some are cylinders