We like to think money is a pretty straightforward concept.
You do something useful, someone hands you a piece of paper or taps a screen, and everyone agrees that number represents something you can buy. Simple.
Except humanity spent thousands of years making this considerably more complicated.
Across history, people have used giant stones, shells, salt, livestock, cigarettes, cheese, beads and an impressive assortment of other things as money. Some of it was officially recognized as currency. Some of it was legal tender. Some of it was basically just everybody collectively deciding, “Sure, I guess this rock is worth something.”
So here are some of the strangest things humans have actually used to pay for stuff, because when you really think about it, the difference between “valuable currency” and “random object” is mostly confidence.
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