The Forum cover image

Money: From coin to cryptocurrency

The Forum

00:00

Coins and Paper Money

Under Japanese occupation from 1937 to 1945, the Chinese snuck messages of resistance and protest into some of their paper money. A banknote shows a portrait of Confucius with his hands making an obscene gesture rather than clasped in prayer as they normally would have been. This is just one example but currency has long been used to spread political and other messages. Yes, already in the Greek period you have for example a really simple propaganda value that we probably don't even think of. You have also different kinds of guards or the pride of a city to say this is us versus the others. That is in particular exemplified also later in the Roman Republic which is a really fascinating case where the

Transcript
Play full episode

The AI-powered Podcast Player

Save insights by tapping your headphones, chat with episodes, discover the best highlights - and more!
App store bannerPlay store banner
Get the app