Popcorn Weekend documentary Movies You Got To Watch # 1
Posted: November 9, 2012 Filed under: Ancient Money, Market History, Money Facts, Popcorn Documentaries, Videos | Tags: 2012, Ancient Money, Market History, Money Facts, Popcorn Documentaries, Videos Leave a commentPopcorn Weekend documentary
Movies You Got To Watch # 1
Financial History – “The Ascent of Money” by Niall Ferguson
5 Episodes in one video player – “not knowing this stuff can seriously damage your wealth”…. Niall Ferguson ====…Popcorn and dip are recommended, enjoy Dimitri 🙂 ====
VIDEO
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The Ascent of Money
| The Ascent of Money | |
|---|---|
|
|
|
| Author(s) |
Niall Ferguson |
| Country |
United States |
| Language |
English |
| Subject(s) |
history of money, credit,banking |
| Genre(s) |
economic history |
| Publisher |
The Penguin Press HC |
| Publication date |
13 November 2008 |
| Pages |
432 |
| ISBN |
978-1-59420-192-9 |
| OCLC Number |
191929255 |
| Dewey Decimal |
332.09 22 |
| LC Classification |
HG171 .F47 200 |
Episodes – Original Version
Ep. 1: Dreams of avarice
From Shylock‘s pound of flesh to the loan sharks of Glasgow, from the “promises to pay” on Babylonian clay tablets to the Medici banking system. Professor Ferguson explains the origins of credit and debt and why credit networks are indispensable to any civilization.
Ep. 2: Human bondage
How did finance become the realm of the masters of the universe? Through the rise of the bond market in Renaissance Italy. With the advent of bonds, war finance was transformed and spread to north-west Europe and across the Atlantic. It was the bond market that made the Rothschilds the richest and most powerful family of the 19th century.
Ep. 3: Blowing bubbles
Why do stock markets produce bubbles and busts? Professor Ferguson goes back to the origins of the joint stock company in Amsterdam and Paris. He draws telling parallels between the current stock market crash and the 18th century Mississippi Bubble of Scottish financier John Law and the 2001 Enron bankruptcy. He shows why humans have a herd instinct when it comes to investment, and why no one can accurately predict when the bulls might stampede.
Ep. 4: Risky business
Life is a risky business – which is why people take out insurance. But faced with an unexpected disaster, the state has to step in. Professor Ferguson travels to post-Katrina New Orleans to ask why the free market can’t provide some of the adequate protection against catastrophe. His quest for an answer takes him to the origins of modern insurance in the early 19th century and to the birth of the welfare state inpost-war Japan.
Ep. 5: Safe as houses
It sounded so simple: give state-owned assets to the people. After all, what better foundation for a property-owning democracy than a campaign of privatisation encompassing housing? An economic theory says that markets can’t function without mortgages, because it’s only by borrowing against their assets that entrepreneurs can get their businesses off the ground. But what if mortgages are bundled together and sold off to the highest bidder?
Ep. 6: Chimerica
Niall Ferguson investigates the globalisation of the Western economy and the uncertain balance between the important component countries of China and the US. In examining the last time globalisation took hold – before World War One, he finds a notable reversal, namely that today money is pouring into the English-speaking economies from the developing world, rather than out.
SOURCE:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ascent_of_Money
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Money Fun Facts #2 – Oldest form of Money 9000 B.C.
Posted: November 8, 2012 Filed under: Ancient Money, Money Facts | Tags: 2012, Ancient Money, Money Facts Leave a commentMoney Fun Facts #2
Cattle are probably the oldest of all forms of money. Cattle as money dates back to 9000 B.C. Some cattle were still used as money in parts of Africa in the middle of the 20th century.
SOURCE:http://www.childrensmuseum.org/special_exhibits/moneyville/pop5.htm
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Money Fun Facts # 1 – Largest Numerical Denomination Bill Ever!
Posted: October 30, 2012 Filed under: Ancient Money, Market History, Money Facts | Tags: 2012, Ancient Money, Market History, Money Facts Leave a commentMoney Fun Facts # 1 – Largest Numerical Denomination Bill Ever!
Largest numerical denomination bill ever is 1 Milliard Hungarian Pengő (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) in 1946. It was only worth twenty cents US! Hyper-Inflation is rough.
Yes That’s – 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Hungarian pengő
The pengő (sometimes written as pengo or pengoe in English) was the currency of Hungary between 1 January 1927, when it replaced the korona, and 31 July 1946, when it was replaced by the forint. The pengő was subdivided into 100 fillér. Although the introduction of the pengő was part of a post-World War Istabilisation program, the currency survived only for 20 years and experienced the most serious hyperinflation ever recorded.
| Hungarian pengő | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Central bank | Hungarian National Bank | ||
| Website | www.mnb.hu | ||
| User(s) |  Kingdom of Hungary Republic of Hungary |
||
| Superunit | |||
| 106 | milpengő | ||
| 1012 | b.-pengő | ||
| Subunit | |||
| 1/100 | fillér (defunct) |
||
| Symbol | P | ||
| Coins | (all withdrawn) | ||
| Banknotes | 10 000, 100 000, 1 million, 10 million, 100 million, 1000 million milpengő; 10 000, 100 000, 1 million, 10 million, 100 million, 1 billion b.‑pengő |
||
| Printer | Hungarian Banknote Printing Corp. | ||
| Website | www.penzjegynyomda.hu | ||
| Mint | Hungarian Mint Ltd. | ||
| Website | www.penzvero.hu | ||
| This infobox shows the latest status before this currency was rendered obsolete. | |||
Name
The Hungarian participle pengő means ‘ringing’ (which in turn derives from the verb peng, an onomatopoeic word equivalent to English ‘ring’) and was used from the 15-17th century to refer to silver coins making a ringing sound when struck on a hard surface, thus indicating their precious metal content. (The onomatopoeic word used for gold coins is csengő, an equivalent of English ‘clinking’ meaning a sharper sound; the participle used for copper coins is kongó meaning a deep pealing sound.) After the introduction of forint paper money in Hungary, the term pengő forint was used to refer to forint coins literally meaning ‘ringing forint’, figuratively meaning ‘silver forint’ or ‘hard currency’.[1]
At the beginning of the First World War precious metal coins were recalled from circulation, and in the early 1920s all coins disappeared because of the heavy inflation of the Hungarian korona. The name pengő was probably chosen to suggest stability. However, there was some controversy when choosing the name of the new currency, though the majority agreed that a Hungarian name should be chosen. Proposals included turul (a bird from Hungarian mythology), turán (from the geographical name and ideological term Turan), libertás (the colloquial name of the poltura coins issued by Francis II Rákóczi), and máriás (the colloquial name of coins depicting Mary, patroness of Hungary).
The denomination of the banknotes was indicated in the languages of ethnicities living in the territory of Hungary. The name of the currency was translated as follows: Pengö (pl. Pengö) in German, pengő (pl. pengi) in Slovak, пенгов (pl. пенгова) in Cyrillic script Serbo-Croatian, пенгыв (pl. пенгывов, later пенге) inRusyn, and pengő (pl. pengei, later penghei) in Romanian. Later pengov (pl. pengova), the Latin script Serbo-Croatian version was also added.
The symbol of the pengő was P and it was divided into 100 fillér (symbol: f).
History
Introduction of the pengő
After the First World War, according to the Treaty of Saint-Germain, the Austro-Hungarian Bank (the joint bank of the Monarchy) had to be liquidated and the Austro-Hungarian krone had to be replaced with a different currency, which in the case of Hungary was the Hungarian korona. This currency suffered a high rate of inflation during the early 1920s. A stabilisation program covered by League of Nations loan helped to bring down inflation, and the korona could be replaced in 1 January 1927 by a new currency, the pengő, which was introduced by Act XXXV of 1925[2] It was valued at 12,500 korona, and defined as 3,800 to one kilogram of fine gold – which meant that the pengő was pegged to the gold standard, however, without exchange obligation. In the beginning the cover ratio (which included gold and – to 50% – foreign exchange) was fixed at 20% which had to be raised to 33.3% within 5 years.[3] This goal was reached quickly: the cover ratio was 51% in 31 July 1930. Later it decreased somewhat due to the economic and financial crisis caused by the Great Depression. Until then the pengő was the most stable currency of the region.
After the Great Depression
The effects of the Great Depression reached Hungary after 1930 and it hit predominantly agriculture. The pengő had to be devalued and the debt of the country increased. After a short period of recovery, the war preparations – amongst which the most important was the Győr-program – had loosened the financial and monetary discipline which in turn led to the depreciation of the pengő currency. The territories given back to Hungary by the Vienna Awards in 1938 and 1940 were economically less developed, which was an additional aggravating factor regarding the economic situation of the country.[citation needed]
World War II
The war caused enormous costs and, later, even higher losses to the relatively small and open Hungarian economy. The national bank was practically under government control, the issue of money was proportional to the budget demands. By this time, silver coins disappeared from circulation, and, later, even bronze and cupro-nickel coins were replaced by coins made of cheaper metal. In the last act of the world war, the Szálasi government took control of banknote printing and issued notes without any cover, first in Budapest, then in Veszprém when Budapest had to be evacuated. The occupying Soviet army issued its own military money according to the Hague Conventions.
Hyperinflation
The pengő lost value after World War II, suffering the highest rate of hyperinflation ever recorded. There were several attempts to break down inflation, such as a 75% capital levy in December 1945. However, this did not stop the hyperinflation and prices continued spiralling out of control, with ever higher denominations introduced. The denominations milpengő (1,000,000 pengő) and b.-pengő (pronunciation: bilpengő) (1,000,000 milpengő, 1,000,000,000,000 pengő or one billionpengő (long scale)) were used to alleviate calculations, cut down the number of zeros and enable the reuse of banknote designs with only the colour and denomination name changed.
Adópengő
End of the pengő
The Hungarian economy could only be stabilized by the introduction of a new currency, and therefore, on 1 August 1946, the forint was reintroduced at a rate of 400 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 (400 octillion) = 4×1029 pengő, therefore the total amount of circulating pengő notes had a value of less than 0.1 fillér. The exchange rate to adópengő was set at 200 000 000 = 2×108 (hence the 2×1021 ratio, mentioned above).[4] The exchange rate for the US dollar was set at 11.74 forints.
SOURCE: http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/50-fun-facts-about-cold-hard-cash.html
SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peng%C5%91
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Historic Currencies – Ancient Greek Drachma
Posted: September 4, 2012 Filed under: Ancient Money | Tags: 2012, Ancient Money, Market History Leave a commentHistoric Currencies – Ancient Greek Drachma
Ancient Greek Drachma
The Greek drachma was originally defined as 1/6000th of a talent of silver (a talent was a unit of weight equal to about 56 pounds). But Solon, the leader of Athens at the beginning of the sixth century B.C., ordered the minting of 6,300 one-drachma coins from each talent of silver, an instant profit of 5 percent. (In fairness, it should be pointed out that setting the face value of the coinage slightly above the bullion value also helped safeguard the money supply, because people would not be tempted to melt down the coins for the metal content.) The profit from minting coins with a face value greater than the bullion value is called seigniorage, a word that clearly implies the sovereign nature of the power to coin money.
But if the money supply soon came under the exclusive jurisdiction of the sovereign, the sovereign, all too often, became the money supply’s greatest threat. For while governments possess the power to coin money, they have always been hard-pressed to pay their bills proof, if any were needed, that money and wealth are by no means the same thing.
Greek drachma of Aegina. Obverse: Land Chelone / Reverse: ΑΙΓ(INA) and dolphin. The oldest Aegina Chelonecoins depicted sea turtles and were minted ca. 700-550 BC.
Ancient drachma
The name drachma[3] is derived from the verb δράσσομαι (drássomai, “to grasp”).[4] It is believed that the same word with the meaning of “handful” or “handle” is found in Linear B tablets of the Mycenean Pylos.[5] Initially a drachma was a fistful (a “grasp”) of six oboloí or obeloí(metal sticks, literally “spits“) used as a form of currency as early as 1100 BC and being literally a form of “bullion”: bronze, copper, or iron ingots denominated by weight. A hoard of over 150 rod-shaped obeloi were uncovered at Heraion of Argos in Peloponnese. Six of them are displayed at the Numismatic Museum of Athens.
It was the standard unit of silver coinage at most ancient Greek and Roman mints, and the name ‘obol’ was used to describe a coin that was one-sixth of a drachma. The notion that “drachma” derived from the word for fistful was recorded by Herakleides of Pontos (387-312 BC) who was informed by the priests of Heraion that Pheidon, king of Argos, dedicated rod-shaped obeloi to Heraion. Similar information about Pheidon’s obeloi was also recorded at the Parian Chronicle.
Ancient Greek coins seldom had official names. Each city would mint its own and have them stamped with recognizable symbols of the city, along with suitable inscriptions, and they would often be referred to either by the name of the city or of the image depicted (e.g. the Aeginetan “turtles”). The exact exchange value of each was determined by the quantity and quality of the metal, which reflected on the reputation of each mint.
The 5th century BC Athenian tetradrachm (“four drachma”) coin was perhaps the most widely used coin in the Greek world prior to the time of Alexander the Great (along with the Corinthian stater). It featured the helmeted profile bust of Athena on the obverse (front) and an owl on the reverse (back). In daily use they were called γλαῦκες glaukes (owls),[6] hence the proverb Γλαῦκ’ Ἀθήναζε, ‘an owl to Athens’, referring to something that was in plentiful supply, like ‘coals to Newcastle‘. The reverse is featured on the national side of the modern Greek 1 euro coin.
Drachmas were minted on different weight standards at different Greek mints. The standard that came to be most commonly used was the Athenian or Attic one, which weighed a little over 4.3 grams.
After Alexander the Great‘s conquests, the name drachma was used in many of the Hellenistic kingdoms in the Middle East, including the Ptolemaickingdom in Alexandria. The Arabic unit of currency known as dirham (in the Arabic language, درهم), known from pre-Islamic times and afterwards, inherited its name from the drachma or didrachm (δίδραχμον, 2 drachmae); the dirham is still the name of the official currencies of Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. The Armenian dram also derives its name from the drachma.
Tetradrachm from Athens about 450 BC. Athena on the obverse, owl on the reverse
Value
It is difficult to estimate comparative exchange rates with modern currency because the range of products produced by economies of centuries gone by were different from today, which makes purchasing power parity (PPP) calculations very difficult; however, some historians and economists have estimated that in the 5th century BC a drachma had a rough value of 25 U.S. dollars (in the year 1990 – equivalent to 41 USD in 2009[7]), whereas classical historians regularly say that in the heyday of ancient Greece (the fifth and fourth centuries) the daily wage for a skilled worker or a hoplite[8] was one drachma, and for a heliast (juror) half a drachma since 425 BC.[9]
Modern commentators derived from Xenophon[10] that half a drachma per day (360 days per year) would provide “a comfortable subsistence” for “the poor citizens” (for the head of a household in 355 BC). Earlier in 422 BC, we also see in Aristophanes (Wasps, line 300-302) that the daily half-drachma of a juror is just enough for the daily subsistence of a family of three.
A modern person might think of one drachma as the rough equivalent of a skilled worker’s daily pay in the place where they live, which could be as low as $1 USD, or as high as $100 USD, depending on the country.
Fractions and multiples of the drachma were minted by many states, most notably in Ptolemaic Egypt, which minted large coins in gold, silver and bronze.
Notable Ptolemaic coins included the gold pentadrachm and octadrachm, and silver tetradrachm, decadrachm and pentakaidecadrachm. This was especially noteworthy as it would not be until the introduction of the Guldengroschen in 1486 that coins of substantial size (particularly in silver) would be minted in significant quantities.
For the Roman successors of the drachma, see Roman provincial coins.
Historic currency divisions
- 8 chalkoi = 1 obolus
- 6 oboloi = 1 drachma
- 100 drachmas = 1 mina (or mna)
- 60 minae = 1 Athenian Talent (Athenian standard)[11]
Minae and talents were never actually minted: they represented weight measures used for commodities (e.g. grain) as well as metals like silver or gold.
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