It was indus vally or mesopotamian civilization i suppose.

A number of commodity money systems were amongst the earliest forms of money to emerge. For example

* the shekel referred to a specific volume of barley in ancient Babylon
* iron sticks were used in Argos, before Pheidon's reforms.
* cowries were used as a money in Africa (up until 19th Century), ancient China and throughout the South Pacific.
* salt was used as a currency in pre-coinage societies in Europe.
* ox-shaped ingots of copper seem to have functioned as a currency in the Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean.
* state certified weights of gold and silver functioned as currency and gave rise to the development of coinage
* rum-currency operated in the early European settlement of Sydney cove in Australia.
* cash crops such as tobacco, rice, wheat, indigo, and maize were used as money in colonial Virginia.

Under a commodity money system, the objects used as money have intrinsic value, i.e., they have value beyond their use as money. For example, gold ...more

Just at the end of the barter system