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One can hardly imagine modern life without money. Money is a standard of value, payment instrument, one of the forms of accumulation of savings. Using money, a manufacturer is able to sell his goods today and buy raw material, say, only in a week. And he may sell his goods at one place and buy what he wants quite at another place. Now it can be seen that money as a medium of exchange overcomes time and spatial restrictions. This is an essential invention of mankind, failing which the development of the society would be impossible.

Years and years ago when men used to go out hunting mammoths and women stayed in the cave not to let the fire go out, there was no money. People did without money quite a long time. Simple exchange of goods, i.e. barter, remained the only way to get needful things for thousands of years. Own products surplus was bartered for surplus possessed by others. Such barter became constant and mass scale, and the market was the main place of public life. But hard-to-solve problems blew up in the market with increasing frequency. What is the value of a spoon? Is the cost of a horse more than that of a cart? People needed something more compact. Shells, skins, tobacco, grain, beans, salt served as a sort of “money” for some time. But that was notably uncomfortable. So, precious metals, gold and silver which never get rusty were put into practice in the VII century BC. They began to make money out of precious metals. Later they began to add metal alloys into gold and silver coins. Eventually pieces of metal forced all other “kinds of money” out. That stage lasted for the most significant period of time.

Origin of paper money is especially noteworthy. Where did paper money turn up from? This question sends us to history again. The first money appeared in China in 910 year BC. Metal coins were heavy to transport, so the government gave thought to using paper money for settlements. It began to pay the merchants not coins but special certificates which could be easily exchanged for gold or silver coins. Such certificates had representations of important persons and officials, were signed and sealed. According to historians, paper money was brought to Europe by travelers; first paper money there was printed late in the XVII century. First paper money was introduced in Russia during the reign of Catherine the Great (1769). It was called “paper money”. But it was not paper money familiar to us today, but rather debt instruments. We would call them bonds today. They could be exchanged for copper coins in bank.

When did first paper money appear in the territory of Belarus? After Belarus had joined Russia in consequences of division of Rzeczpospolita (1772), the same monetary system came into operation in its territory. In other words, first paper money appeared in Belarus in 1772. First own money was made in Belarus after the breakup of the Soviet Union. All countries that had formed its parts lived separately and printed their own money. The National Bank of the Republic of Belarus issued banknotes depicting animals. A banknote to the value of 1 rouble was perhaps most famous, it depicted a rabbit. Later, all Belarusian banknotes came to be called “rabbits” by people. The modern Belarusian banknotes depict the monuments of architecture of Belarus. A good banknote has a multi-level protection system so that to prevent from counterfeiting. Only the central bank of the country is entitled to print money. Currency counterfeiting is strictly prohibited by the law, one can go to jail for that.

Every country has its own money. Such money has different forms and colouring. So, the USA has an American dollar, Georgia – Georgian lari, Czech Republic – Czech koruna, Cuba has its peso, Mongolia has tugrik, the Ukraine has hryvnya, Bulgaria has Bulgarian lev. But whatever the name of currency, in any country its money is a special universal item of goods which can be exchanged for anything. People use national currency in their own country, but they need foreign currency for money transactions abroad.

Today, all money can be divided into two groups: cash money and non-cash money.

It is all clear with cash money: they are paper pieces of money or coins in one’s purse. Cash money or cash is the most widespread form of money. But sometimes problems turn up with cash money: it can be worn-out or stolen or lost, or the problem of giving change blows up.

Non-cash money is not printed on paper. One cannot touch non-cash money; it has no form – neither paper nor coins. Non-cash money exists only in the form of book entries. A person who is entitled to manage such money is an account holder. A bank card which can be easily placed in a purse is one of the instruments of holder’s access to his or her account. Using it, the holder may pay for anything he wants, for example pay for products in the store, buy clothes, pay for his cell phone, etc. At present, the bank card is one of the most convenient ways of remote control of one’s funds without the necessity to go to the bank each time one needs to make payment. Noncash settlements by bank cards enable to save time and avoid queues in the bank or cash machine in order to draw out or pick up money. In addition, it is safer to keep money with the bank account rather than to have it in the purse or at home. Even if the bank card is lost, the bank customer does not lose funds available on his bank account. He only needs to make a call to the bank and ask for freezing a card so that it becomes not operational.

Wider use of bank cards and other methods of noncash settlements by the population contribute to additional attraction of money of the population to banking and its work for the national economy with a view to increasing the standard of living of the citizens.

However, non-cash money has not only advantages but also disadvantages. For example, bank cards are not honoured in some places; and people sometimes lower their guard and buy more things when they pay by card than they would buy in case of cash payment.

The word "coin" originates from the name of goddess Juno (Juno Moneta) at whose temple in Ancient Rome a mint was situated in the III century BC. Coins remained practically the only instrument of money circulation during more than two thousand years (from their introduction in the VII century BC to XVIII–XIX centuries). Following wide expansion of paper money, coins little by little evolved from the main payment instrument into a secondary one. Nevertheless, coins carry on playing their role in money circulation even today, when bank cards and electronic money exist.

First coins of the Republic of Belarus were minted in the Republic of Belarus on December 27, 1996. Their appearance was the result of formation of the sovereign state and its emission institute.

Design of majority of coins was developed by the Belarusian artists. Traditional Belarusian geometric ornamental pattern was used as a decor.

Historically the origin of banking is connected with storage of valuables.

Other bank services (bank account, deposits, loans) appeared much later and resulted from the storage operations.

What is a safe-deposit box?

Safe-deposit box is a metal safe placed in a bank, in a special room with an armor-plated door (called vault) under increased security and video alarm system. Metal safes are of different size, equipped with special locks and have two keys. One of the keys is committed to the owner of the safe-deposit box, the other one is left in a bank. To open the safe-deposit box you should use both keys simultaneously.

Safe-deposit boxes are designed to store cash money, securities, documents, jewelry, precious metals, antiquities, works of art, electronic storage medium and other things. Exception is toxical, radioactive, explosive, narcotic, inflammable substances, weapons and items that create emit strong electric and geomagnetic fields.

Safe-deposit boxes: who uses it and why?

Traditionally the actuality of the valuables storage service highly rises in summer (during the holiday period), during Christmas holidays. Safe-deposit box can be the storage for your valuables in case you have a long-term business trip or long term departure. A lot of people just keep their savings and valuables in bank, considering that to keep them at home is insecure.

Moreover safe-deposit boxes are commonly used as a guarantee in civil transactions. For example, the service is widely used to transfer money from the customer to the seller on the secondary housing market. Thus the customer sets up a safe-deposit box rental contract with a bank for а particular period of time and puts money in the safe-deposit box. After the trade registration the seller produces to the bank his or her passport, registered agreement of sale and purchase and other documents specified by the agreement of the parties and takes the money. If for some reasons the documents weren’t registered and the deal fell through the customer can take his money after producing the documents confirming that the bargain didn't come off.

Characteristics of for safe-deposit box agreement

Relations between bank and safe-deposit box user are juristically regulated by two kinds of agreements: rental contract and custodial contract. In case you set up a custodial contract your bank will make up inventory of all the subjects in your safe-deposit box and will be responsible for their safety. Bank officers will be present at the storing of valuables and control all the client operations with valuables from now forward.

How much does it cost?

Price of storage service as usual depends on following conditions:

1. Size of the safe-deposit box. The bigger the box is the more expensive it is.

2. Availability period. The longer the period of rent is, the cheaper one day of rent costs.

3. Whether you are a bank customer or not.

4. Purpose of valuables storage.  Custodial contract service is usually more expensive than rental contract service.

Some banks ask to stand bail (security deposit), that will be paid back on a full scale after the expiration of the contract validity.

Why some private individuals and legal bodies prefer to store their monetary resources in safe-deposit boxes rather than depositing, investing in financial instrument?

Storage of valuables in individual safe-deposit boxes doesn’t return interest. Moreover the storage is an expense item! However this service has some advantages:

1. Bank has no property right in regard to the storing valuables. Bank is only an owner of the storaging equipment, but not the valuables themselves. Customer can withdraw his valuables in any time.

2. This service provides though not absolute, but maximum privacy among others bank services.

Receiving Belarusian rubles and foreign currency in cash department a citizen has right to count per sheet the cash in the presence of an authorized bank official.

In this regard one should know the following:

A citizen can learn the list of characteristics of fitness for use as currency of banknotes of the Republic of Belarus and foreign currency at the cash department or on the informational brochure stand.

If the bank teller offers the citizen to count per sheet the receiving cash to make sure that the sum is correct and the quality of the money is satisfactory, one should not refuse from counting per sheet, because if cash shortage is found out during counting bank will file a report of cash shortage. It will be signed by an authorized bank official presenting at counting and the citizen. After that the shortfall amount will be compensated.

If the citizen refuses from per sheet counting of receiving money, the bank teller will cut off a part of the clishe stamp from the sealing seam of the plastic bag where the money was packed. After that the citizen can’t pursue any claims to the bank.

At paying the money in cash department of the other bank in the packing with cut off part of the clishe stamp from the sealing seam a bank teller will receive money from the citizen counting per sheet and checking thе banknote authenticity and the fitness for use as currency.

If during recounting cash a shortage, invalid banknotes, forgery characteristics or banknotes of questionable authenticity are found out the citizen can’t pursue any claims to the bank where he received the money.

Therefore in order not to get into troubles and to be able to pursue a claim to the bank timely it is recommended always to count per sheet in the presence of an authorized bank official receiving Belarusian and foreign currency in bank during any bank operation, for example, currency trading, collecting a deposit or a transfer.