A comprehensive infographic depicting the history of money from 9000 BCE to the present, tracing the evolution from commodities like cattle and salt to digital assets like Bitcoin.

A vertical timeline infographic titled 'A history of money'. It uses colored 'streams' to show the longevity and overlap of various forms of currency including commodities (cattle, tobacco), shells, metals (gold, silver), coins (denarius, florin), paper (banknotes), credit (tally sticks, cheques), and digital money. A prominent 'Fiat' block dominates the modern era, while Bitcoin appears as a distinct final category.

A history of money Commodity Shells & beads Metals Coins Paper Credit Digital 2000 CE CBDCs Stablecoins Bitcoin Fiat E-money 1971: Nixon ends gold convertibility all national currencies Credit cards Gold standard in the U.S. Gold 1873-1933 Coins Cheques Tobacco Wampum Pieces of eight Banknotes Bills of exchange 1500 CE Cowrie shells Florin Yuan chao Jiaozi Tally sticks 1000 CE Rai stones Dinar & dirham Chinese cash Tea bricks Flying cash Solidus 500 CE Salt Denarius CE BCE Drachma Clay debt tablets Lydia 1000 BCE Silver Bronze 2000 BCE Grain 3000 BCE 4000 BCE 5000 BCE Cattle 7000 BCE 9000 BCE All fiat currencies flow as one stream. Stream widths are impressionistic, not to scale. Sources: World GeoHistoGram, Michigan Geographic Alliance / Central Michigan University, 2010 RIVER