Artifact

Our Artifact series highlights interesting relics from the history of money, accounting and payroll that illustrate how we got to where we are today.  

Ithaca Hours and time-based currencies 

An experiment in 1990s New York was a fairly recent example of a centuries-old idea: local currency projects based on labor.

The Denominator, a device for counting money

Mechanical tabulation changed the game for payroll clerks in the early 20th century.

The birth of paper money in China

The advent of printed money, called jiaozi, in China changed the world and how people get paid.

The first coins in Ancient Greece

Trade and commerce existed long before coins, but the idea of money was a revelation and a revolution.

Cowries have become a quintessential example of a commodity currency.

The very first calculating machine

Four centuries ago, during a time of great innovation, Wilhelm Schickard invented the first-ever calculating machine in Germany.

Cowries, the currency that powered West Africa

For centuries, cowrie shells were a driving currency behind the slave trade. But their impact across Africa goes back much further than that.

Khipu, the ancient Inka accounting system

Long before Excel, accountants of the Inka Empire used knotted strings called khipu, or quipu, to record taxes and stock.

How time-tracking clocks shaped the working world

Despite being thoroughly embedded in today’s professional life, “clocking in” is a relatively modern invention.

“We don’t want to show documents; we want to tell the stories contained inside the documents.”

Cashier check ‘kebabs’ sum up Naples’ financial history

This Italian port city was a business hub for centuries, and all its dealings were documented on slips of paper strung up like meat.

Until the 1940s, many U.S. coal towns ran on scrip, a company’s own currency.

Coal company scrip paid to miners often left them deep in debt

The tokens paid in lieu of cash were abundant in remote areas of the U.S. until the mid-20th century, explains history professor Lou Martin.

Cuneiform tablets reveal secrets of Mesopotamian payroll

Early payroll records were among humans’ first steps toward a writing system, explains Ali H.O. Bnayan, an archaeologist and cuneiform expert from the Iraq Museum.