Currency


Currency Media

 
Song dynasty Jiaozi, the world's earliest paper money

Currency is the unit of money used by the people of a country or a union of countries for buying and selling goods and services.

Certain currencies are said to be "pegged" or "fixed" to something, usually another currency. A fixed or pegged currency is one that has a constant value compared to what it is pegged to. For example, the Cape Verdian escudo is pegged to the Euro. If the value of the Euro goes up 1% compared to another form of currency, the value of the escudo also goes up 1% compared to that same currency.

Many countries have used systems where their currency was pegged to a commodity rather than to another currency. Most used either gold or silver. When they did this, as the value of gold increased, so did the value of their money. This was called the "gold standard" or "silver standard". Most countries stopped using silver and gold standards in the 20th century.

Some well-known currencies are:

Names of different currencies around the world

This list appears in alphabetical order:

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