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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 1554242, member: 112&quot;]That is an excellent resource Bart :thumb: I have university study papers for the medieval period, but that&#039;s the first I&#039;ve seen for ancients.</p><p><br /></p><p>Things like that seem a bit confusing for people in today&#039;s world because we don&#039;t use the same type of system. But even before the first coins were ever minted that is the type of system that was in use until the modern age. And it had to be that way because the coinage changed so often, and there were so many, many, different types of coinage from all of the various countries.</p><p><br /></p><p>What it boils down to is this - each country had what was called a money of account. Money of account is not actual coin, it is a concept of value - an idea. And this is why the people of today&#039;s world cannot understand the fiat currency that we use today. Money is and always has been nothing more than an idea - a thought. But I digress.</p><p><br /></p><p>Back then, and even up until well into the 20th century, every country (every issuing authority even) minted their gold and silver coins with greatly varying weights, and of metal with a greatly varying fineness. So there was no such thing as this coin is equal to that coin because the coins, even from the same country, were too different. One might weigh 2.5 grams while another, of the same denomination, weighed 2.2 grams. And each was made of a metal of different fineness - one might be .930 while the other was .870. So to solve that problem they used a money of account - an imaginary coin if you will - that told you what every coin was actually worth in commerce. </p><p><br /></p><p>The money of account, once established, never varied. While the coins almost always varied every time there was a new King, Queen, Emperor, Duke, Count, whatever. And sometimes, if a given ruler needed to boost his treasury, he/she merely changed the weight or fineness, or both, of the coins he/she produced, and then issued those new (usually debased) coins at the same value as the previously issued coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is where inflation comes from, it is something that has been with us since dawn of time, even though few realize that. And inflation was often at much higher rates than any we have ever seen in our lifetimes.</p><p><br /></p><p>But anyway, the money of account was the constant, it is what allowed the currency system of days gone by to function. Without it, it never could have functioned.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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