History of Money in Timeline

By Popular Timelines Editorial Team · Updated: July 11, 2025

Money serves as a universally accepted medium for exchanging goods and services, settling debts, and measuring economic value. Its core functions include acting as a medium of exchange, providing a standard unit of account, enabling the storage of value over time, and occasionally serving as a benchmark for deferred payments. In essence, money simplifies transactions and facilitates economic activity within a defined region or socio-economic system.

1900: Gold Standard Adopted by Industrializing Nations

By 1900, most of the industrializing nations were on some form of a gold standard, with paper notes and silver coins constituting the circulating medium.

1919: Jevons's Four Functions Summarized

By 1919, William Stanley Jevons's four functions of money (a medium of exchange, a common measure of value, a standard of value, and a store of value) were summarized in a couplet.

1971: US suspends dollar-gold convertibility

In 1971, the U.S. government suspended the convertibility of the dollar to gold, leading many countries to de-peg their currencies from the U.S. dollar. This marked a shift towards fiat currencies unbacked by physical commodities.

1971: United States Breaks Away from Gold Standard

In 1971, the United States was one of the last countries to break away from the gold standard, contributing to the global shift towards floating fiat currencies.

1990: Electronic Money Transfer in the US

By 1990, all money transferred between the central bank and commercial banks in the United States was in electronic form, marking a significant step in the digitization of money.

2002: Euro Counterfeiting

Since the launch of the Euro in 2002, there has been significant counterfeiting of Euro banknotes and coins, although considerably less than for the U.S. dollar.

2008: Bitcoin Introduced

In 2008, Bitcoin was conceived, introducing a decentralized currency that requires no trusted third party.

2012: Electronic Transactions Reach 58% in Some Countries

In 2012, electronic transactions accounted for 20 to 58 percent of transactions, depending on the country, indicating the increasing dominance of digital currency.