--- title: Money's history: shells, coins, paper, cards, phones — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Money's history: shells, coins, paper, cards, phones», a lesson of the money course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Money has changed its shape many times, but its job has stayed the same: to buy, to save and to measure what things are --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Money](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/) / Money's history: shells, coins, paper,… # Money's history: shells, coins, paper, cards, phones Lesson 5 of the money course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/0/) — Money has changed its shape many times, but its job has stayed the same: to buy, to save and to measure what things are worth. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/1/) — Long ago people used things that were hard to find and that everyone agreed on, like cowrie shells, salt, cattle and beads; today a bucket of beach shells buys nothing, because nobody agrees to use shells as money any more. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/2/) — About 2,600 years ago the first coins were made in Lydia, in what is now Turkey, and over 1,000 years ago China began using paper money, because a light note was easier to carry than a heavy pile of coins. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/4/) — Long ago, in parts of Africa and Asia, small shiny cowrie shells were used as money. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/5/) — Salt was very valuable because it stopped food going bad; the word "salary" comes from the Latin word for salt, though historians argue about whether Roman soldiers were really paid in salt. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/6/) — The first coins were made about 2,600 years ago in Lydia, a land in what is now Turkey. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/7/) — Coins made trade easier because each one had a set size, weight and value, so people did not have to weigh metal every time. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/8/) — China was the first country to use paper money, over 1,000 years ago. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/9/) — A cheque is a written note telling your bank to pay someone; few people use cheques now. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/10/) — Paying by card or phone uses the money in a bank account; no coins move, but the numbers in the bank change. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/11/) — On the island of Yap, giant stone wheels were used as money; some were too big to move, so people simply remembered who owned each one. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/12/) — In the UK, the £1 coin replaced the £1 note in the 1980s, because coins last much longer than notes. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/13/) — Cash use is falling fast, but many people, including some older people and people without bank cards, still need it; people disagree about how fast cash should go. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/14/) — Some shops already test paying with your face or fingerprint. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/5-money-s-history-shells-coins-paper-cards-phones/15/) — "Minted" is British slang for very rich. - ← previous: [Swaps and barter in the playground](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/4-swaps-and-barter-in-the-playground/) - next →: [Pocket money and earning it with chores](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/6-pocket-money-and-earning-it-with-chores/) - ↑ back to [Money](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/)