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Demonstrates that monetary value and currency systems originated as non-linguistic credit ledgers, accounting entries, and tamper-evident receipts millennia before physical precious metal coinage was invented. Applying the IMRaD framework and the Wikaira Decipherment Framework, this paper analyzes four critical historical case studies: (1) Micronesian Yapese Rai limestone discs, where value transfer occurred via public credit ledger consensus without physical stone movement; (2) Old Assyrian Kültepe (Kanesh) clay debt envelopes (c. 1900 BCE); (3) Northern Song Dynasty Sichuan heavy iron coinage (tiěqián) and paper deposit notes (Jiaozi, 1024 CE); and (4) 17th-century London goldsmith deposit receipts that founded European paper banknotes and fractional reserve banking. The study proves that human currency and early graphic scripts evolved along a unified 5,000-year administrative continuum of credit tracking and receipt verification.
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Moana Elizabeth Ann Wikaiar (2026) studied this question.
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