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What Counted as Money Before Coins? - Beyond the Barter Myth | Sleepy Facts About History
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Before coins, before paper notes, and before the very idea of cash, people still needed to measure value, facilitate trade, and settle their debts. This episode explores what societies actually used as money before modern currency existed, from weighed silver in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean to grain debts recorded on Mesopotamian clay tablets. It looks at how very different objects—cattle on the East African grasslands, cowrie shells in West African markets, and wooden tally sticks in…
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