At one time in history, currency and money were one in the same. Many ancient civilizations divided gold into units, and used it directly to purchase and sell goods and services. Some examples include:
- the Greeks had the electrum drachma, a gold and silver alloy
- the Romans used their gold Aureus coins, named for their goddess of the dawn
- the Aztec people paid taxes with their gold teocuitlatl, meaning "excrement of the gods."
But as civilizations expanded and became more complex, so did their economies, creating the separation of currency and True Money.
Currency is defined as "something that is used as a medium of exchange." Currency is not necessarily coins and dollars. Land, services, livestock, and other goods have all been used as currency in the past, and in some places still are. But the currency we are more familiar with today is paper money. Instead of trading goods and services, paper money is our medium of exchange, and is a substitution for true value.
True Money, on the other hand, exhibits all of the characteristics of currency, but with an additional feature.
Money is defines as "gold, silver, or other metal in pieces of convenient form stamped by public authority and issued as a medium of exchange and measure of value." Not only is money a medium of exchange, but a measure of value, not just a representation of it. The difference is subtle, but critical.