In about the XII>th century B.C.E. in China and in the VII>th century B.C.E. in the Mediterranean States – Lydia and Aegina – the metal coins appeared which were similar by weight, size and alloy composition.

The evolution of money didn’t stop on this. We can distinguish the next stages of the cost’s forms development: the stage of transition to paper and credit money and then their phasing-out from the turnover as a result of what the electronic money appear.

Besides the mentioned above points of view the other metal and nominal theories (nominalism) in economics regarding money and their nature were expressed.

The metal theory identifies money with precious metals. The theory proves that money should certainly have an inmost value in order to perform its functions. The most significant followers of this theory were the mercantilists who considered that gold and silver are the money by their nature and in virtue of their natural features. This approach reflected the situation truly in whole for the systems with the full-bodied (commodity) money.

The nominalism identifies money by the symbols of value (signs), conventional payment units. The most important is not the metal content of money but their symbolism (nominal). First of all money are considered as the product of state power and legal relations when their purchasing power is determined by the State. In whole the nominal theory of money reflects the true nature of money in the modern economic systems.

There are a lot of approaches of money determination. For example they could be rendered as a special good which plays role of a universal equivalent. This description remains actual for the long term though in the modem economic literature we can meet the other descriptions which usually indicate the other separate functions or peculiarities of money.

Money – metal and/or paper are the standards of value during the purchase and sale deal which play role of a universal equivalent, i.e. they express the value of all of the goods and are exchanged on any of them. (Shorter Economics Dictionary / under the editorship of A.N. Azriliyan – M., 2000).

Paul A. Samuelson writes that the flow of money is the source of life power, money provide the measuring rod of value. Besides money act as a medium of exchange and as standard unit of value or account. (Paul A. Samuelson «Economics» – M., 1992 – T. 1., – p. 40, p. 47).

According to the evolutional theory we can give the following description of money: Money are the historically developing economic category which expresses the definite economic relations between people in the process of production and distribution.

The essence of money consists of their features:

The universal immediate exchangeability – the possibility to exchange money onto any items of value.

The independent form of exchanged value which is not connected directly with realization of goods. The most significant cases of money usage in this form are credit accommodation, loan indebtedness redemption, financing of various manufacturing and nonmanufacturing costs, etc.

The materialization of the universal labor time is that labor spent on the goods production creates their value which could be changed by means of money.

1.1.2. The functions of money

The generation of money and their usage led to the great consequences. Money generation allowed to overcome the narrow bounds of mutual exchange of separate producers by means of goods and to create conditions for market generation in the operations of which many owners of different goods can take part. It provided the further development of production and improvement of its effectiveness.