  A long time ago, before there were any coins or paper money, people got the things they needed by trading or exchanging. Salt was one of the first items used as a valuable to exchange for other items. Later, other things were used for exchange, such as tea leaves, shells, feathers, animal teeth, tobacco, and blankets.
  The world's first metal money was developed by people in the Middle East around 1000 B.C.. About 700 B.C., people started using coins as official money. About 60 years later, around 640 B.C., people in Turkey made special coins of gold and silver.
  The first paper money was invented around A.D. 1000 by the Chinese. The Europeans discovered this thanks to Marco Polo, who went to China in A.D. 1295. Afterwards, because of inflation, the Chinese stopped using paper money for a few hundred years. And it wasn't until the early years of the 20th Century that it was used again as an official currency across the country.
