Money has evolved over time from a barter system to increasingly abstract forms. Early currencies included commodities like grains, metals, and animals before standardized coins were developed in China and Lydia. Paper money and checks later emerged, allowing transactions to occur without physical exchange. Today, digital forms of money including credit, debit, and digital currencies perform the core functions of serving as a medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account. Banks have facilitated transactions through checks, credit, and more recently plastic forms of money like credit cards since the development of formal banking institutions in ancient Rome.