Historians believe that the first coins came from the Mediterranean around 2700 years ago. But as people got richer, their money got heavier. So around the year 1000AD, notes were invented to make money easy to carry.

These days, people don’t need to carry money around with them. They can take money out of their bank accounts at an ATM machine, or use eftpos in shops. They can even transfer money to other people using the Internet. Of course, they can still visit a branch to take money out too.