"The farther backward you can look, the more likely you are to see," Winston Churchill once said. We are going to look back in the spirit of Churchill. way back to the Greeks' time.
Since about 680 B.C., when they were minted into coins of equal weight to make trade easier and smoother, gold and silver have been the predominant forms of currency. Although they have been the primary forms of currency for 4,500 years, Lydia was the first to use them as money.

Coinage, on the other hand, truly flourished in Athens when it first appeared. The first democracy in the world was in Athens. They had a functioning tax system and the world's first free market system. This enabled the amazing public works of architecture like the Parthenon.

In fact, the Athens star shone brightly for many years. You are aware that they are regarded as one of the greatest civilizations of all time if you have studied their history. Additionally, you will be aware that their civilization perished long ago.

So, what took place?
Why did Athens fall, such a great and powerful civilization? The answer follows a pattern that has been repeated repeatedly throughout history: excessive greed resulting in excessive conflict.
Under their new monetary system, Athens prospered. Then they got involved in a war that took a lot longer and cost a lot more than they expected (sound familiar?). The Athenians came up with a very clever way to keep funding the war after 22 years of it when their resources were decreasing and the majority of their money was spent. In an effort to keep going, they started devaluing their money. The Athenians came up with the brilliant idea that you could spend 2,000 coins if you combined your gold and silver with Chapter One 8 50% copper and took in 1,000 coins from taxes. Is this something you're familiar with? It ought to...The term for it is deficit spending, and our government engages in it on a daily basis.

For the first time ever, gold and silver price outside of themselves. Everything you could buy before the brilliant idea of the Athenians was based on the weight of gold or silver. For the first time ever, official government currency consisted of a mixture of gold or silver and copper rather than gold or silver alone. It could be used to purchase gold and silver, but the currency supply no longer contained gold and silver.
Their beautiful money became nothing more than currency over the next two years, and as a result, it lost almost all of its value. However, it goes without saying that those who had been holding onto pure gold and silver coins saw their purchasing power significantly increase once the public became aware of the depreciation.

The war that started the entire process was lost within a few years. Athens would never regain their former glory and would eventually be reduced to a province of Rome, the next great power.
Gold and silver are crowned the "Heavyweight Champions of Athens" in the very first regional heavyweight match between currency and money.