I agree with Mary Anne. Coins are neat! I collect ancient coins. They're not that expensive and provide an excellent excuse to study ancient history in fine detail. A couple of bronze coins from my collection were made in ancient Syracuse (one struck under the tyrant Hiero and the other under his grandson Hieronymous). Both of those coins could have been used by Archimedes (he lived in Syracuse under Hiero and Hieronymous). It's funny to hear people talk about how pretty Queen Kleopatra was (the last queen of the Ptolomey dynasty). I've handled portrait coins struck under Kleopatra (she was plain ugly). I own a coin struck by her daddy, Ptolomey Aleutes. I once worked as a volunteer numismatist cataloging an ancient coin collection held by the Georg August University in Goettingen, Germany. One day I was handling this nasty little bronze coin struck in Judea during the Roman Empire. It had the name of the Roman Prefect on the reverse, "Pontius Pilate". I couldn't help but think, "I wonder if someone paid J.C. for some carpentry work with this coin?" A closing comment about paper money: It has been the subject of scholarly debate whether or not the Romans sometimes used paper script in lieu of coins (the Romans went through some extreme economic inflations). We'll probably never know because if the Romans did use paper script it all long ago turned to dust. We should definitely continue to use coins.

Gary