An Evolution Through the Ages
use of silver
as money
As nomadic tribes began to settle in one location, they also domesticated animals and began to cultivate their own crops. As a result, the tribes began to increase in population and that required more territory. In order to sustain their growth, bartering became the norm. One man with excess chickens bartered with his neighbor for his excess sheep.
Although bartering proved to be useful locally, it had its drawbacks when applied to larger and more distant cities. It was impossible to determine a uniform code of value for all goods bartered because the goods varied immeasurably from one to another. Were 6 chickens equal to 1 sheep or 2?
The need for another form of exchange became obvious as trade among distant cities began to escalate. Here, the Greeks, who were the most advanced civilization at the time, made another contribution to humanity. They invented coinage.
The evolution of silver as money began during the rise of the Greek civilization. There is evidence that the Lydian and Ionian Greeks were the first people to introduce coins during the 7th-century BC. Lydian Lion coin is an example.
As the Greek empire expanded, so did its trading routes. As the Classical Greek period began during the 4th and 5th-centuries BC, nearly every major city in the Eastern Mediterranean was producing silver coins of their own.
The precious metals proved ideal for exchange. It was relatively scarce, durable, fungible, divisible, and transportable. And a coin’s value could be determined with confidence when standards were established which were based on weight and material.
Certain powerful Greek cities began setting their own weight standards, which simplified exchange within their cities and established the concept of standardized metal coins. The coins became a medium of exchange, and as such, facilitated trade. The Athenian drachma was 4.3 g of silver. The Aeginitan stater was composed of 12.2 g of silver and the Corinthian stater was based on 8.6 g of silver.
Although at different times in history, shells, tea, livestock, salt, tobacco and wampum have also been used as money, nothing has retained its relatively stable purchasing power like silver. Not even the fiat currencies which are now issued by governments across the world.
As a hedge against inflation, physical silver is still tops.