Coins facts

The first coins

Coins made from gold and silver were used in lydia, an ancient middle Eastern kingdom, in about 687-652 BC. the coins we're known as staters.

Largest coins

Swedish 10 dealer copper coins (made on 1644) weighed 19.7kg.

Smallest coins

The silver quarter-jawa was made in Nepal in about 1740 and weighed only 0.002g. you would need half a million of them to equal kilograms

Most coins made

The US mint makes more than 12 billion coins every year. Almost 7 billion of them are 1cent coins. There are nearly 25 billion UK coins in circulation, worth a total of over e3 billion

Banknotes

Papermoney was first made in China in the 13th century. The first European notes were made in Sweden in 1548. Banknotes were issued in America in 1690 and in England in 1695.

Largest banknotes

One-guan Chinese notes from the late 14yh century measured 22.8 x 33cm- bigger than a page of my book (ive read)

Smallest banknotes

Romanian 10Bani notes of 1917 had a printed area of just 27.5 x 38mm, which is not much bigger than a postage stamp.

Cheques

The first cheque was issued in London on 22 April 1659. It was for E10 and made payable to the bearer by Nicholas Vanacker. It was drawn on the bank of Clayton & Morris. The original cheque was sold for e1,300 at Sotheby's London in 1976.