No one really invented money, but there are records of early money used in about 1200 B.C. we found these records in today's southern Algeria. In that time people used coins called shekels. These coins were first invented by the Algerians, but the Algerians aren't the only people using coins. The early Chinese used reeds woven into coins about two inches in diameter. Then emperor Xiang proposed the idea of using rice as money. The Romans finally invented paper money because they couldn't fit so many coins into their togas, to get their paper money the Romans went to their merchantmen and traded coins for a paper saying the amount of money it was worth.