These are some of the facts that I have collected over the years about money which I thought I will share it with you. I don’t have the source from where I have the following information so please forgive me for not providing it and I don’t take the ownership of the following information.
In olden days Spanish coins were known as pesetas and centimes. There were fifty centimes coins, and also coins of one and two and one half pesetas. The coins carried the portrait of Francisco Franco. Italian coins were called lira.
The newest coin from the United States is the golden dollar, which is different from other dollar coins because of its golden, rather than silver color.
Britain issued a coin to mark the first total eclipse of the sun in over seventy years? It was the last eclipse of the millennium and it happened on August 11, 1999. The coin shows two water birds watching the eclipse. On the other side of the coin there is a picture of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Reserve Bank of India has released India’s first ever bi-metallic coin, of the denomination Rs.Ten. One side of the coin has the lion symbol with the numeral 10 and the year of manufacture. On the reverse side, a double line cross and the denomination written in Hindi and English. The metal on the outer side is nickel-bronze and the inner side is ferrous steel. The weight of the coin is about 8 grams, and the diameter 27 mm.
Paper money was first used in China by a group of merchants and businessmen in the same place where printing was also invented. The name of the note was jiaozi. The first notes that ever appeared were actually issued earlier during the Tang dynasty, but they were not backed by a government guarantee.
A banknote allowed the person carrying it to claim an amount of precious metal equal to that mentioned in the note. In Europe, Stockholm Banco, a predecessor of the Bank of Sweden, issued the first bank notes. In 1667, the bank ran out of coins to redeem its notes and ceased operating in that year.
The Three Squirrels was a famous goldsmith shop in Lombard Street London, which flourished under major Henry Pinckney in Cromwell’s time. Along with other goldsmiths, they developed into goldsmith bankers, and these in turn, developed into the famous banking firms, of which some still exist today. The most famous of these banks were located at the same address as the original Three Squirrels, and their Cheques had pictures of bushy tailed squirrels.
I found this very interesting. In India, One rupee coins are more commonly in use these days. In earlier days, one rupee note was also in circulation too. All the rupee notes have the signature of the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. However, the one rupee note carried the signature of the Secretary to the Government, Department of Finance. It was the only actual rupee note, all other notes are in the form of a promise made by the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
Engineer's Finance 