For example, barley was commonly used as a medium of exchange in ancient Mesopotamia. In ancient Egypt, grain, cattle, and precious metals like gold and silver served as commodity money.

This is the first article in a series that dives into the properties of money, examining historical and current examples. This article focuses on commodity money as a form of storing and ...

Unlike fiat money, commodity money has intrinsic value – examples include gold, silver or other goods like salt and cattle historically used in trade. The value of commodity money remains ...

Most of us don’t spend much time thinking about commodities, but they touch nearly every aspect of our lives. Almost everything we use, work with, watch, eat, or wear was made with a commodity ...

Fiat money is a government-issued currency that's not backed by a physical commodity such as gold or silver. Read more about dollars, euros, and other fiat money.

Commodity money has an intrinsic value derived from the commodity it is made of; for example, precious metals, food and even cigarettes. The currency itself has no intrinsic value but derives its ...

Learn more about commodity and fiat money and some of the differences between them. Find out when the U.S. abolished the gold standard.

For example, barley was commonly used as a medium of exchange in ancient Mesopotamia. In ancient Egypt, grain, cattle, and precious metals like gold and silver served as commodity money. Cowry shells ...