A currency is a universal, standardized medium of paying for things. Historically, currencies have been represented by physical goods such as precious metals, coins, and banknotes, though this trend has been broken with the advent of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum that exist exclusively on computers. Some popular examples of physical currencies are the U.S. Dollar, Euro, and Yen.

Currencies are the lifeline that has allowed our society of globalization and interconnectedness to exist, and has done so for thousands of years. Before currencies, bartering was the main method of getting goods and services: a person would give you a good or service in exchange for you also giving that person a good or service. But what if you don't have a good or service that the other person wants? With bartering, you'd be screwed, but that exchange could still occur with currencies as they are something everyone wants.

To answer that question, you'll need to know a little about me. Hello and welcome! My name is Raiyan and this is my final project for ET-710. Some facts you might or might not know about me are that I grew up in Saudi Arabia and I am the son of immigrant parents from Bangladesh. That had numerous impacts on my life obviously, but the one I want to focus on is that I had to spend most of my time there indoors. I did not grow up learning Arabic much, the most common language in Saudi Arabia, so trying to integrate with their culture was extremely difficult for me. Feeling left out, one of my ever-lasting aspirations has been to experience the rest of the world and what it has to offer.

I remember visiting a friend's house sometime in 2015, where he showed off a binder filled with pages of banknotes from all sorts of different countries ranging from Argentina to Iran to Malaysia. As I would later learn, this hobby of collecting paper money is known as notaphily. Each of these banknotes featured details that revealed important aspects of that country when examined, giving me glimpses into that country. After seeing his collection, I built up my own over the years, amassing notes from over 35 countries. Ultimately, my aim with this website to share my fascination with you by covering the unique aspects of the banknotes in my collection.