Hallycon Academy

Curso 1 · Principiante

What money is: from barter to digital euros

Where money came from, why it works and what it is today: barter and IOUs, coins, paper money, gold, 1971, bank money, the euro, the franc and the digital euro.

  • 8 lecciones
  • 56 min
  • Gratis
  • Un certificado al terminar

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Las lecciones

Cada lección tiene un vídeo breve, un cuestionario y enlaces para saber más. Las lecciones completas se abren tras un registro gratuito.

  1. Lección 1: What money does, and why it needs trust

    7 min

    Money is whatever people accept because they trust others will accept it too. It has three jobs, and it fails when trust fails.

    Puntos clave

    • Money has three jobs: paying, measuring prices and keeping value for later.
    • It works only because people trust that others will take it.
    • When trust breaks, money stops working, as history shows.

  2. Lección 2: Before coins: barter, shells and IOUs

    7 min

    The barter story is only half true. The oldest records show people keeping accounts of debts long before the first coin.

    Puntos clave

    • Barter needs two people who each want what the other has, at the same moment.
    • Clay tablets from Mesopotamia record loans and debts thousands of years before coins.
    • Shells, salt, cattle and grain all served as money wherever people trusted them.

  3. Lección 3: Coins, kings and the first inflation

    7 min

    The first coins appeared in Lydia around 600 BC. Rulers soon learned to mix in cheaper metal, and prices rose.

    Puntos clave

    • A coin is a weighed piece of metal with a ruler's stamp on it.
    • Putting less silver or gold in coins ("debasement") was an old way for rulers to pay their bills.
    • Between about 238 and 268 AD, Rome's main silver coin went from about 2.2 grams of silver to less than 0.1 gram (CNRS, Roman Imperial Coinage project).

  4. Lección 4: Paper money: promises you can carry

    7 min

    From Chinese paper notes to Europe's first banknotes, paper money began as a receipt for metal. It works only while people trust whoever issues it.

    Puntos clave

    • China used paper money about 1,000 years ago; Europe's first banknotes came from Stockholm in 1661 (Sveriges Riksbank history).
    • A banknote started as a promise to pay out gold or silver on demand.
    • Print too much and trust collapses: in November 1923 one US dollar cost 4.2 trillion German marks (German Bundestag).

  5. Lección 5: The gold standard and Bretton Woods

    7 min

    For about a century many currencies were tied to gold. After 1944 the world tied its currencies to the dollar, and the dollar to gold.

    Puntos clave

    • Under the gold standard a banknote could be swapped for a fixed weight of gold.
    • In 1944 at Bretton Woods, 44 countries fixed their currencies to the dollar, and the dollar to gold at $35 an ounce (Federal Reserve History).
    • Money tied to metal limits what governments can spend: that was its strength and its weakness.

  6. Lección 6: 1971: the day money lost its anchor

    7 min

    On 15 August 1971 the United States stopped swapping dollars for gold. Since then our money rests on trust in central banks, not on metal.

    Puntos clave

    • On 15 August 1971 the US closed the "gold window"; by 1973 the big currencies floated freely.
    • Money today is "fiat": it has value because the law and our trust say so.
    • Keeping prices stable became the central banks' main job.

  7. Lección 7: Money today: cash, bank money and payments

    7 min

    Most of the money you own is not cash but a number at your bank. How cards, transfers and instant payments move it, and why cash is still different.

    Puntos clave

    • Notes and coins were only about 9% of the euro area's broad money (M3) in September 2026; most of the rest is bank deposits (ECB).
    • Cards, transfers and apps move bank money; since 2025, euro-area banks must offer instant transfers at no higher price than normal ones.
    • Cash is central bank money: the only money the state itself hands you.

  8. Lección 8: The euro, the franc and digital money

    7 min

    How the euro was born, why the Swiss franc is different, and what a digital euro would and would not change.

    Puntos clave

    • The euro started on accounts in 1999 and as cash in 2002; the Swiss franc dates from 1850.
    • A digital euro would be central bank money on your phone; as of October 2026 the ECB is preparing it, and EU law still has to decide if it comes.
    • Crypto coins are issued by no central bank, which is one reason their prices swing so much.

Qué encontrará

  • Vídeos breves: Unos dos minutos por lección
  • Cuestionarios: Tres preguntas después de cada lección
  • Calculadoras: Inflación, interés compuesto, fondo de emergencia y comisiones
  • Certificado: Por cada curso que complete

Las lecciones completas, los vídeos y los cuestionarios se abren tras un registro gratuito: su nombre, correo electrónico, móvil y un PIN. Sin tarjeta, sin compromiso.

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