How did we come to accept paper (and now intangible crypto currency) as legit forms of payment? Although we all pay for products and services with our debit/credit cards or cash on a daily basis without a second’s thought, it has certainly crossed many of our minds how and when the human race began to place so much value in a piece of plastic or paper. The history of money doesn’t begin with actual paper bills: it began with barter and slowly evolved into ‘commodity money’ and specie (coins), which gave way to commodity-backed IOUs, transformed into ‘fractional reserve banking’ and credit money, moved all the way to abandoning the gold standard, and finally culminated in what we call today plastic or digital money. After trying countless systems and currencies and grappling with different theories, we finally came to accept money as “an idea, rather than a thing.”

Fun fact: ‘Shell money’ — in the form of cowry shells — not gold, is actually the most successful form of currency, and one that was used for the most expansive period of time. This six-episode season from YouTube-based web series Extra History runs through the history of money and similar interesting tidbits of knowledge. Start with the first episode (runtime: 8:14), and binge through the rest.