A new Bank for International Settlements database counts 568 currencies issued since 1850, tracing how political independence and changes to currency names and units have shaped the world’s monetary history.
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published the research as Working Paper No. 1392 on Friday, Nov. 6. Titled “Gaining (and losing) currency: a global database of currencies, 1850-2026,” the study records 568 government-issued currencies over the period. That is a cumulative tally, not the number used at one time: 405 have been discontinued and 163 remain in use. The inventory spans six continents and includes currencies linked to colonial administrations, territorial jurisdictions and wartime settings.
The count stood at about 67 in 1850 before reaching 192 in 1994, around the breakup of the Soviet Union. It has since declined; the BIS attributes most of the fall to the euro replacing various currencies.
Political independence accounted for 28% of recorded currency introductions. For discontinuations, a name or unit change was the most frequent recorded reason, at 35%. When inflation is combined with those changes, the causes account for 55% of currency endings, the paper found. That structure lets researchers compare the reasons recorded for creating currencies with those linked to their discontinuation.
A currency’s median lifespan in the database was 33 years, and nearly one-quarter lasted fewer than 10 years. The historical tally therefore measures turnover as well as currencies that remain in use today. The figures describe different things: 568 is the cumulative count since 1850, while 163 is the number still in use.
The study was written by Iñaki Aldasoro, a principal economist; Jon Frost, head of innovation and the digital economy; Rudraksh Kansal, a financial market analyst; and Catherine R Schenk, a professor of international economic history.
The authors made the database available for research on money and economic history. They say it may inform that work as cryptoassets and stablecoins renew debate over the nature of money.
