Portal:Money

The Money Portal

Euro coins and banknotes

Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are: medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value and sometimes, a standard of deferred payment.

Money was historically an emergent market phenomenon that possessed intrinsic value as a commodity; nearly all contemporary money systems are based on unbacked fiat money without use value. Its value is consequently derived by social convention, having been declared by a government or regulatory entity to be legal tender; that is, it must be accepted as a form of payment within the boundaries of the country, for "all debts, public and private", in the case of the United States dollar.

The money supply of a country comprises all currency in circulation (banknotes and coins currently issued) and, depending on the particular definition used, one or more types of bank money (the balances held in checking accounts, savings accounts, and other types of bank accounts). Bank money, whose value exists on the books of financial institutions and can be converted into physical notes or used for cashless payment, forms by far the largest part of broad money in developed countries. (Full article...)

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Monnaie de Paris, 11 quai Conti, 75006 Paris

The Monnaie de Paris (French pronunciation: [mɔnɛ də paʁi], Paris Mint) is a government-owned institution responsible for producing France's coins. Founded in AD 864 by King Charles the Bald with the Edict of Pistres, it is the oldest continuously running minting institution and one of the oldest extant companies in the world. (Full article...)

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The złoty (alternative spelling: zloty; Polish: polski złoty, Polish: [ˈzwɔtɨ] ^ⓘ; abbreviation: zł; code: PLN, English: golden) is the official currency and legal tender of Poland. It is subdivided into 100 groszy (gr). It is the most-traded currency in Central and Eastern Europe and ranks 21st most-traded in the foreign exchange market.

The word złoty is a masculine form of the Polish adjective 'golden', which closely relates with its name to the guilder, whereas the grosz subunit is based on the groschen, cognate to the English word groat. It was officially introduced to replace its interim predecessor, the Polish marka, on 28 February 1919 and began circulation in 1924. The only bodies permitted to manufacture or mint złoty coins and banknotes are the Polska Wytwórnia Papierów Wartościowych (PWPW), founded in Warsaw on 25 January 1919, and Mennica Polska, founded in Warsaw on 10 February 1766. (Full article...)

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Did you know -

... that the song "Money" by the Drums was certified gold by the RIAA over a decade after its initial release?
... that in the span of three days, a Florida man was approved by bankruptcy courts to buy TV stations in Roanoke and Lynchburg, Virginia, and then arrested on charges of laundering millions in drug money?
... that a member of Active Bird Community made a solo EP with money intended for the band's fifth album?
... that Martha Washington's portrait on the 1896 US one-dollar silver certificate is the most recent time that a woman has been featured on US paper money?
... that the façade of the Brooklyn Central Library was removed in an attempt to save money?
... that placekicker Cam Little donated money to a Down syndrome organization for every field goal he made?
... that barley was once used as a form of money?
... that fake Buddhist monks scam tourists out of money to build non-existent temples?

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The following are images from various currency-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1US dollar banknotes (from Money)
Image 2Tibetan undated silver tangka, struck in 1953/54, obverse. (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 3Paper money from different countries (from Money)
Image 4A person counts a bundle of different Swedish banknotes. (from Money)
Image 5Tibetan silver tangka with Ranjana (Lantsa) script, dated 15-28 (= AD 1894), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 6Ancient Jewish coin, engraved menorah, from the Hasmoneon kingdom 37-40 BCE (from Money)
Image 7Huizi currency, issued in 1160 (from Money)
Image 8Tibetan "gaden" Tangka, undated (ca. AD 1840), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 9A 1914 British gold sovereign (from Money)
Image 10Punch-marked coins discovered from Chandraketugarh. (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 11Banknotes of different currencies with a face value of 5000 (from Money)
Image 12Tibetan silver tangka with Ranjana (Lantsa) script, dated 15-28 (= AD 1894), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 13Tenga of Muhammad Khudayar Khan, struck at the Kokand mint, dated 1862–1863 (from Kokand tenga)
Image 14Tibetan undated silver tangka (2nd half of 18th century) with eight times the syllable "dza" in vartula script, obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 15Undated Kelzang tangka (1910), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 16Tibetan undated silver tangka (2nd half of 18th century) with eight times the syllable "dza" in vartula script, reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 17Euro banknotes and coins (from Money)
Image 18A 640 BC one-third stater electrum coin from Lydia. According to Herodotus, the Lydians were the first people to introduce the use of gold and silver coins. It is thought by modern scholars that these first stamped coins were minted around 650 to 600 BC. (from Money)
Image 19"Bent bar" of the Gandhara Janapda unearthed with Achaemenid and Greek coins, Gandhara, c.350 BC. (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 20A check, used as a means of converting funds in a demand deposit to cash (from Money)
Image 21Printing paper money at a printing press in Perm (from Money)
Image 22Tibetan "gaden" Tangka, undated (ca. AD 1840), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 23Money Base, M1 and M2 in the U.S. from 1981 to 2012 (from Money)
Image 24Gold coins are an example of legal tender that are traded for their intrinsic value, rather than their face value. (from Money)
Image 25Tibetan undated silver tangka, struck in 1953/54, reverse. (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 26Tibetan kong par tangka, dated 13-45 (= AD 1791), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 27Sino Tibetan silver tangka, dated 58th year of Qian Long era, reverse. Weight 5.57 g. Diameter: 30 mm (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 28Tibetan kong par tangka, dated 13-45 (= AD 1791), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 29A hoard of mostly Mauryan punch-marked coins (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 30Sino Tibetan silver tangka, dated 58th year of Qian Long era, obverse. Weight 5.57 g. Diameter: 30 mm (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 31Undated Kelzang tangka (1910), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 32“Babyal Hoard” type, of the Kuru Janapada (350 - 315 BCE) (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 33President J. K. Paasikivi illustrated in a former Finnish 10 mark banknote from 1980 (from Money)
Image 34Song Dynasty Jiaozi, the world's earliest paper money (from Money)
Image 35Silver, ½ Karshapana coin, “Babyal Hoard” type, of the Kuru Janapada (450 BC - 315 BC) (from Punch-marked coins)

In the news

8 December 2025 – Corruption in Mexico: In Mexico, former Chihuahua governor César Duarte Jáquez is arrested for allegedly laundering more than Mex$96 million (US$5 million) in public funds. (Reuters)
11 November 2025 –: The Southwark Crown Court in London, United Kingdom, sentences Chinese fraudster Qian Zhimin to 11 years and eight months in prison for running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded over 128,000 investors and laundered the proceeds into Bitcoin, resulting in the recovery of about ₿61,000 in the country's largest cryptocurrency seizure. (AP)

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