Thread by @NickSzabo4

U.S. Federal Reserve to teachers and students (there will be a quiz!): “Traditionally, currency is produced by a nation's government.“
files.stlouisfed.org/research/publi…
Education or propaganda? At the very least it is quite incomplete. The following thread fills in some of the gaps:

2/ Many banks besides central banks issued bank notes that circulated as currency. See work of @lawrencehwhite1 & @GeorgeSelgin
• Charted Bank of India, Australia, and China, 1954
• Mechanic’s Bank, U.S.,1856
• North of Scotland bank, 1945
• Ipswich bank in England,1820s

3/ In the industrial revolution, factories had to attract workers with frequent pay that could be spent at bargain shops. The Royal Mint was not producing low-denomination coins, so factories minted their own. Was not the only time or place for private coins. ht @GeorgeSelgin

4/ Vast majority of coins were minted by gvnts, but monetary use of metals was far broader than & long predated that of coins. International money was the metal not its form. "Pound", "drachma", "shekel" etc. were units of weight.
unenumerated.blogspot.com/2017/03/collec…
unenumerated.blogspot.com/2016/12/weigh-…

Ethnography was confounded by colonial bans on native institutions. Despite this many recorded use of shells as store of value & medium of wealth transfer. Shell beads go back over 100,000 years in archaeology. Copper was first smelted to make beads.
unenumerated.blogspot.com/2017/02/confli…