why is money made from paper?

Answer 1

Its not always so. Paper money is just so because you can print the value on it and it's difficult to counterfeit.

You have coins in all kinds of metals including gold.
There are lot of plastic notes circulating as well.

But most of the money in the world is not paper. Is not gold. In fact it is just a number in some retrieval system. Kind of scary huh?

Answer 2

The answer is that it isn't... at least not all of it.

For a start there are coins for the lower demoninations. But I assume that you mean banknotes... even some of these are no longer made out of paper... there are now some banknotes made of plastic, which is much more hard-wearing

(see http://www.questacon.edu.au/html/plastic_banknotes.html)

Paper was originally used because it was simply a development of the "promisary note" - a signed document promising to pay whoever held the note an amount as mentioned on the note. It might read "I promise to pay the bearer the sum of £100". British banknotes, at least, still carry the words "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of... (and then the amount)"

In effect the paper note was worthless until converted into "money" when the promisary note was "cashed in".

It soon became obvious that the promisary note itself could be traded and used as money... handing over a promisary note was just passing the promise to be paid on to someone else in exchange for goods or services. And in this way the banknote was born.

Paper continued to be used because there was no real alternative that was as light and portable. As criminals quickly realised that forging banknotes could make them a lot of money, printed banknotes became more and more elaborate in order to beat the forger:-
Special paper
Watermarks
Metal strips inside the paper note (so even paper money isn't ALL paper!)
Holograms
Serial Numbers
And of course detailed and complicated patterns and images printed with special inks.

Until quite recently paper was the only medium capable of being subjected to all these various security devices whilst still remaining light and manageable.

Many people think that "paper" is made only from wood but in fact paper can be made from a whole range of different materials; the essential feature being that they have fibres which can be compressed and inter-locked together and remain flexible and durable. Many high quality papers such as those used for baknotes are made from (or contain a proportion of) materials such as cotton fibre and this again is part of the anti-forging process as it is difficult to duplicate the type of paper used. Such papers are also much more resistant to wear and tear, exposure to water and so forth. Even so, banknotes eventually wear out and have to be withdrawn from circulation and this is another advantage of paper... it can be relatively easily destroyed.

Answer 3

Here is a 2 day Civics lesson in a nutshell...
1. It is easily transported (imagine if we had to carry around huge bricks).
2. It has generally agreed upon to be valued (everyone agrees a green piece with a 10 on it is worth $10).
3. It is not easily destroyed (doesn't rot if left out like vegetables or flowers could be).
4. It allows for easy division (you can easily trade 1 piece of paper for 10 pieces of paper without too much trouble carrying around the extra weight).

There are 2 more reasons which I'm sure my students could tell you, but alas without my notes I can not.

Answer 4

money is made not out of an ordinary paper but more of a fabric like paper. it has fibers. its security paper/

Answer 5

Japan's money feels like paper, but it's really plastic fiber.

Answer 6

One of the answers were that its made of cotton (could be)...Anyway as we know it its light, collectively compactable, can be straightened out if creased (plastic can but not too many times) It is cheap to manufacture and also can be printed on.

Answer 7

i think if it was made of wood or metal it would b heave to carry around. so thats y its made out of paper. its not just paper its valuable paper too (",)

Answer 8

so it can be destroyed easily and its cheap but not all money is made from paper ex. coins..

Answer 9

jusy imagine if it was made from the steell we would have run out by now.so it easy from papers bcoz there are many trees.

Answer 10

because the solid steel plates they started with didn't fold up too well for the wallet !!!