Portal:Money

The Money Portal

Euro coins and banknotes

Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are: medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value and sometimes, a standard of deferred payment.

Money was historically an emergent market phenomenon that possessed intrinsic value as a commodity; nearly all contemporary money systems are based on unbacked fiat money without use value. Its value is consequently derived by social convention, having been declared by a government or regulatory entity to be legal tender; that is, it must be accepted as a form of payment within the boundaries of the country, for "all debts, public and private", in the case of the United States dollar.

The money supply of a country comprises all currency in circulation (banknotes and coins currently issued) and, depending on the particular definition used, one or more types of bank money (the balances held in checking accounts, savings accounts, and other types of bank accounts). Bank money, whose value exists on the books of financial institutions and can be converted into physical notes or used for cashless payment, forms by far the largest part of broad money in developed countries. (Full article...)

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Captain Euro is a comic book superhero, created in 1999 as a way to promote the European Union, and specifically the launch of the Euro, the single European currency that arrived in 2002. The character has been featured on a website (first at captaineuro.com, later at captaineuro.eu) since 1999. Captain Euro has been featured on comic books and comic strips available on its website and as comic books on Amazon. The website's contents are available only in English.

Captain Euro, the campaign, website and all the additional characters ans storylines were created by Nicolas De Santis of the consulting firm Twelve Stars for the EU. Twelve Stars was already working for the EU in various identity and brand projects, including with the European Parliament. (Full article...)

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The Latvian lats (plural: lati, plural genitive: latu, second Latvian lats ISO 4217 currency code: LVL) was the currency of Latvia from 1922 until 1940 and from 1993 until it was replaced by the euro on 1 January 2014. A two-week transition period during which the lats was in circulation alongside the euro ended on 14 January 2014. The lats is abbreviated as Ls and was subdivided into 100 santīmi (singular: santīms; from French centime), abbreviated as an s after the santīm amount.

The Latvian lats has been recognized as one of the 99 entries of the Latvian Culture Canon. (Full article...)

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... that people are robbing Lebanese banks to get their own money back?
... that the first women's dormitory built at Hampton University was partially paid for with money collected by the school's choir in tours led by Thomas P. Fenner?
... that modernist architect Paul Rudolph was said to have run out of money three times while designing the Modulightor Building?
... that in the span of three days, a Florida man was approved by bankruptcy courts to buy TV stations in Roanoke and Lynchburg, Virginia, and then arrested on charges of laundering millions in drug money?
... that Martha Washington's portrait on the 1896 US one-dollar silver certificate is the most recent time that a woman has been featured on US paper money?
... that Ivan I of Moscow earned the nickname "Kalita", which literally means 'money bag'?
... that barley was once used as a form of money?
... that a group of parents discovered that a children's charity had been embezzling money?

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The following are images from various currency-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Tibetan kong par tangka, dated 13-45 (= AD 1791), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 2Sino Tibetan silver tangka, dated 58th year of Qian Long era, obverse. Weight 5.57 g. Diameter: 30 mm (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 3Tibetan kong par tangka, dated 13-45 (= AD 1791), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 4Euro banknotes and coins (from Money)
Image 5Tibetan silver tangka with Ranjana (Lantsa) script, dated 15-28 (= AD 1894), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 6Silver, ½ Karshapana coin, “Babyal Hoard” type, of the Kuru Janapada (450 BC - 315 BC) (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 7US dollar banknotes (from Money)
Image 8Tibetan undated silver tangka, struck in 1953/54, obverse. (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 9Tibetan "gaden" Tangka, undated (ca. AD 1840), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 10A 640 BC one-third stater electrum coin from Lydia. According to Herodotus, the Lydians were the first people to introduce the use of gold and silver coins. It is thought by modern scholars that these first stamped coins were minted around 650 to 600 BC. (from Money)
Image 11Tibetan "gaden" Tangka, undated (ca. AD 1840), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 12Ancient Jewish coin, engraved menorah, from the Hasmoneon kingdom 37-40 BCE (from Money)
Image 13Gold coins are an example of legal tender that are traded for their intrinsic value, rather than their face value. (from Money)
Image 14A hoard of mostly Mauryan punch-marked coins (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 15"Bent bar" of the Gandhara Janapda unearthed with Achaemenid and Greek coins, Gandhara, c.350 BC. (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 16Undated Kelzang tangka (1910), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 17Tibetan silver tangka with Ranjana (Lantsa) script, dated 15-28 (= AD 1894), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 18Money Base, M1 and M2 in the U.S. from 1981 to 2012 (from Money)
Image 19Banknotes of different currencies with a face value of 5000 (from Money)
Image 20Punch-marked coins discovered from Chandraketugarh. (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 21Song Dynasty Jiaozi, the world's earliest paper money (from Money)
Image 22Printing paper money at a printing press in Perm (from Money)
Image 23President J. K. Paasikivi illustrated in a former Finnish 10 mark banknote from 1980 (from Money)
Image 24A person counts a bundle of different Swedish banknotes. (from Money)
Image 25Sino Tibetan silver tangka, dated 58th year of Qian Long era, reverse. Weight 5.57 g. Diameter: 30 mm (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 26Tibetan undated silver tangka (2nd half of 18th century) with eight times the syllable "dza" in vartula script, reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 27Tibetan undated silver tangka (2nd half of 18th century) with eight times the syllable "dza" in vartula script, obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 28Tenga of Muhammad Khudayar Khan, struck at the Kokand mint, dated 1862–1863 (from Kokand tenga)
Image 29Undated Kelzang tangka (1910), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 30A check, used as a means of converting funds in a demand deposit to cash (from Money)
Image 31A 1914 British gold sovereign (from Money)
Image 32“Babyal Hoard” type, of the Kuru Janapada (350 - 315 BCE) (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 33Paper money from different countries (from Money)
Image 34Tibetan undated silver tangka, struck in 1953/54, reverse. (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 35Huizi currency, issued in 1160 (from Money)

In the news

8 December 2025 – Corruption in Mexico: In Mexico, former Chihuahua governor César Duarte Jáquez is arrested for allegedly laundering more than Mex$96 million (US$5 million) in public funds. (Reuters)
11 November 2025 –: The Southwark Crown Court in London, United Kingdom, sentences Chinese fraudster Qian Zhimin to 11 years and eight months in prison for running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded over 128,000 investors and laundered the proceeds into Bitcoin, resulting in the recovery of about ₿61,000 in the country's largest cryptocurrency seizure. (AP)
8 November 2025 – 2025 WTA Tour: In tennis, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan becomes the first Asian player to win a WTA Finals title after defeating Aryna Sabalenka, 6–3, 7–6^(7–0) to win the singles title at the 2025 WTA Finals. By winning the title undefeated, Rybakina wins US$5.235 million in prize money, breaking the previous year's record for the largest prize money earned by a female tennis player at a single event. (BBC Sports)