In 42 articles that originally appeared in "Coin World" magazine, Gerald Tebben explores the history of money from antiquity to the Internet. Tebben, a coin collector for 40 years and a numismatic columnist for 20, discusses the coins in use at various points in history, their buying power then and their value to collectors today.
In an article on Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," Tebben examines economic conditions in 1843, when the story was written, and discusses the Victorian coins that passed through Scrooge's counting house. Bob Cratchit earned the equivalent of $3.64 a week in American money, enough to place him at the lowest rung of the middle class during trying times known in England as the "Hungry Forties".
Other articles address such questions as: How much Leonardo DaVinci charged for his services, whether slaves were a good investment in ancient Athens and why Confederate coins were minted at Philadelphia during the Civil War.
In an article on electronic commerce, Tebben discusses a connection between emerging electronic payment systems on the Internet and 18th century Scottish banking practices.
Numismatic scholar Q. David Bowers wrote the book's foreward.
