The Chinese were the first to inventpaper around 100 AD. They were also the first to invent paper money, which in its early form can be traced back to the 7th century.

In the year 812, the Chinese Emperor used it as a temporary solution because of the copper shortage. This money was called "flying money". It was so popular that by 970 it dominated as a monetary unit.

These first bank notes carried a guarantee that it could be traded at any time for coinage. The name of this bank note was "cash".

The oldest existing bank note is the 1000 cash note of the Ming dynasty

from the era of the Great War 1368-1398. It is 225 x 340 mm with a pile of coins centrally depicted . The picture was to show people who couldn't read that they could trade the bill in for the depicted number of coins.

When Marco Polo came back from his travels in China (1275-1292), people in Europe didn't believe that the Chinese used paper for money. Paper money in Europe came 300 years later. The use of paper money in China stopped in 1455.

The history of paper money in Europe is interesting. It started as emergency money sustituting for regular money. The first emergency paper bills are from 1483. The first bank notes were printed in the 17th century.