Money is used for buying or selling goods, for measuring value and for storing wealth. Almost every society now has a money economy based on coins and paper notes of one kind or another. However, this has not always been true. In primitive societies a system of barter was used. Barter was a system of direct exchange a sheep, for anything in the market place that they considered to be equal value. Barter however was a very unsatisfactory system because people’s precise needs seldom coincided. People needed a more practical system of exchange, and various money systems developed based on goods, which the members of the society recognized as having a value. Cattle, grain, teeth, shells, features, skulls, salt, elephant tusks and tobacco have all been used. Precious metals gradually took over because, when made into coins, they were portable, durable, recognizable, and divisible into larger and smaller units of value. A coin is a piece of metal, usually disc-shaped, which bears lettering, designs or numbers showing its value. Until the 18th and 19th centuries coins were given monetary worth based on the exact amount of metal contained in them, but most modern coins are based on face value, the value the governments choose to give them, irrespective of the actual metal content. Coins have been made of gold (Au), silver (Ag), copper (Cu), aluminum (Al), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), plastic and China even from pressed tealeaves. Most governments now issue paper money in the form of notes, which are “promises to pay”. Paper money is obviously easier to handle and much more convenient in the modern world. Checks, bankers, cards and credit cards are being used increasingly and it is possibly to imagine a world where “money” in the form of coins and paper currently will no longer be used. Even today, in the U.S. many places-especially filling stations – will not accept cash at night for security reasons. About saving money In America "If you can't save money you will never become rich and prosperous". So think all the Americans and they cultivate the habit of saving money in their children when they are yet kids. Parents give their child the first money when the first tooth shows itself in the baby's mouth. The money is put into a piggy-bank and since that time month by month the parents add to it new sums. The most remarkable thing about saving money is that you must be patient and save your money as long as possible without spending it. But usually children need some money for sweets, chewing gum, and other trifles. For these and other purchases parents give their children an allowance or in other words "pocket money". With this money a child can buy these things. In Russia, the idea of saving money by a child has been considered for a long time as disgraceful. Parents who bought piggy-banks for their children have been criticized. There was a general belief that if a child is saving money he or she is sure to become a greedy, selfish man. But it was not always so. Our ancestors knew how to save money and there are two very nice Russian proverbs which prove it: «Кто не бережет копейку, тот не стоит и рубля", «Копейка py6ль бережет». вот такая ерунда
