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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: It Talks

The Essay: It Talks: Episode 4: Coins

It Talks

Episode 4

Episode 4: Coins

Coins

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, It Talks, CoinsClose menu

Edith Hall argues that the first coins gave individuals more freedom than ever before.

Prof Edith Hall argues that the first coins gave individuals more freedom than ever before and laid the foundations for abstract thought.

"Money. You don't know where it's been,
But you put it where your mouth is.
And it talks." (Money, by Dana Gioia) 

The history of money stretches back some 11,000 years. There have been certain key moments in its development and each essay tells their story and the resonance that these revolutionary blips have had ever since. 

4. Coins - In 687BC Herodotus criticised the gross commercialism of the Lydians, who were not only the first people to coin money but also the first to open permanent retail shops. In this Essay, Professor Edith Hall argues that coins not only gave individuals a level of freedom and self-determination unknown before, but also laid the foundations for abstract thought.

Producer: Paul Kobrak.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Series exploring key developments in the history of money

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