Like most of you, I am reading Babylonian partnership contracts from the first half of the second millennium B: “x silver is owed by B to A for a business partnership. Of everything he (B) makes of that capital, he shall receive half the profit from A.” 
Babylonia is where the first analysts appeared and where a considerably younger Warren Buffett first said: "When investing, we view ourselves as business analysts – not as market analysts, not as macroeconomic analysts, and not even as security analysts."
"Sumerian cuneiform is the earliest known writing system. [It was developed] to represent trade goods and livestock on clay tablets. Originally the Sumerians made small tokens out of clay to represent the items." These Sumerian tokens were not called "coin offerings."
