For the last 10,000 years we've given value to objects to use as mediums of exchange. The form that money has taken has changed considerably—from cattle and cowrie shells to Quisk, the all-digital electronic payment system of today.

• Cattle

  Cattle and other forms of livestock are the first and oldest forms of money. The advent of agriculture meant grains, seeds, salt and tea were also used as mediums of exchange.

• Cowrie Shells

  Decorated mollusk shells were first used in China, and are the most widely and longest used currency in history. They were used on almost every continent, including in Africa as recently as the 20th century.

• Coins

  The first coins of silver or gold appeared in Lydia, part of present day Turkey. They took the familiar round form of today and were stamped with various gods and emperors.

• Paper Money

  Introduced more than 1000 years ago in China, paper money disappeared from use for several hundred years beginning in 1455, but not before it was brought to Europe by traders like Marco Polo.

• Gold Standard

  The British West Indies pegged its currency to the most widely used currency in the Caribbean, the Spanish gold doubloon, following Queen Anne's Proclamation in 1704 in an effort to control inflation.

• Credit Card

  Frank McNamara invented the first credit card—the Diners Club Card—in 1950. Since then, many other plastic cards with magnetic strips or embedded chips have been introduced to facilitate payment.

• Electronic Payment

  Using mobile devices, transactions can now take place in an entirely digital way. Quisk is the first central bank-sanctioned electronic payment system with complete and secure banking functionality.