Stories from history that illustrate our desire to get something for nothing is as old as humanity.
There are currently at least 13,000 different cryptocurrency tokens in existence. Can all of these new forms of digital money survive? 17th-century London might provide an unexpected answer.
Learn the story behind Operation Bernhard, the Nazi plan to counterfeit British pounds and then drop them on the UK to cause economic chaos.
When you learn how our need for money first emerged, it might change how you value your time and energy today.
Where did the dollar symbol come from? Why is the word salary connected to Roman soldiers and salt? Discover the disputed origins of common money terms.
Have you heard the story about where the word salary comes from? If it relates to Roman soldiers, I’ve got some bad news. It’s one of the most popular historical myths about money.
Why can’t you create your own money? Fuck about and find out. While historical punishments for counterfeiters and coiners included being fed to wild beasts or hung, drawn and quartered, the modern protection of monetary privilege is more subtle but not less determined.
Find out about the violent and painful punishment for coin clipping, why coiners were executed as traitors, and the gory details of being hung, drawn and quartered.
The evolution of money has taken some surprising turns, so we’ve gathered 10 of history’s strangest forms of money from salt to shells and giant doughnut-shaped rocks.
Fake it til you make it might be a 21st-century mantra, but a trio of 19th-century rogues who claimed their own kingdoms set a high bar. Meet the Second Baron of Arizona, the Copra King of the South Seas and the Prince of Poyais.
Learn how the Great Recoinage and two of the nation’s greatest thinkers, John Locke and Isaac Newton, saved 17th-century England from running out of money due to coin clippers, counterfeiters & speculators.
