Lambskins

Numismatics (Latin: numisma, nomisma, "coin"; from the Greek: νομίζειν nomízein, "to use according to law"), is the scientific study of currency and its history in all its varied forms. more...

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While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes a much larger study of payment media used to resolve debts and the exchange of goods. Lacking a structured monetary system, people in the past as well as some today lived in a barter society and used locally found items of inherent or implied value. Early money used by primitive people is referred to as "Odd and Curious", but the use of other goods in barter exchange is excluded, even where used as a circulating currency (e.g., prison cigarettes). The Kyrgyz people used horses as the principal currency unit and gave small change in lambskins. The lambskins may be suitable for numismatic study, but the horse is not. Many objects have been used for centuries, such as conch shells, precious metals and gems.

Today, most transactions take place by a form of payment with either inherent, standardized or credit value. Numismatic value may be used to refer to the value in excess of the monetary value conferred by law. This is also known as the "collector's value" or "intrinsic value."

Economic and historical studies of money's use and development are separate to the numismatists' study of money's physical embodiment (although the fields are related; economic theories of money's origin depend upon numismatics, for example).

History of money

Money itself must be a scarce good. Many items have been used as money, from naturally scarce precious metals and conch shells through cigarettes to entirely artificial money such as banknotes. Modern money (and most ancient money too) is essentially a token -- an abstraction. Paper currency is perhaps the most common type of physical money today. However, goods such as gold or silver retain many of the essential properties of money.

History of numismatics

Coin collecting has existed since ancient times - it is known that Roman Emperors were among some of the earliest coin collectors. It is called the "Hobby of Kings", due to its most esteemed founders. Numismatics reached its apex due to the great demand during the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance. In this period ancient coins were collected a great deal by European royalty and nobility. It is known that Roman Emperors Augustus and Julius collected Greek coins. Other collectors of coins were Pope Boniface VIII, Italian poet Petrarch, Emperor Maximilian of the Holy Roman Empire, Louis XIV of France, Ferdinand I, Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg who started the Berlin coin cabinet and Henry IV of France to name a few. The science of numismatics is of comparatively recent origin. The ancients do not seem to have formed collections, although they appear to have occasionally preserved individual specimens for their beauty. Petrarch has the credit of having been the first collector of any note; but it is probable that in his time ancient coins were already attracting no little notice. The importance of the study of all coins has since been by degrees more and more recognised, and at present no branch of the pursuit is left wholly unexplored.

Read more at Wikipedia.org