Meaning of MonetaPro

At MonetaPro, we recognize that money goes back to even before the beginning of civilization – the use of currency began with the famous Cowrie shell (also known as the “Moneta” shell) as far back as 1,200 BC in China. Historically, many societies have used Cowrie shells as money, and even as recently as the middle of the 20th century, cowries have been used in some parts of Africa.

The Cowrie (Moneta) shell is the most widely and longest used currency in history. The derivation of the word “money” comes from the cowrie (moneta) shell.

Collected loose in bags, or strung into strands, they were the earliest forms of currency. Cowries were used in many parts of the world – including Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The Cowrie shell is also called a “Moneta” shell to commemorate its use as the first form of coinage or money.

The image of the Cowrie as a type of currency was so strong that the first oval metal coin minted in the Greek colony of Lydia around 670 B.C. was modeled after that shell. Many early Roman coins also were minted in the same way, perhaps because they would be accepted by less civilized peoples because they looked like a Cowrie.

The name Moneta became linked to the use of money because it was the name given to the Roman goddess Juno Moneta who was responsible for the protection of commercial trading. As such, Moneta became the patron goddess of money and the minting of money. Roman Senatorial mints were located in the temple of Juno Moneta within the city of Rome. Early Roman coins with the Goddess Moneta on the reverse were popular, and to this day her visage appears on many forms of money.

The Chinese, so far as is known, were the first society to use cowries as currency. Cowries have also been found in prehistoric Stone Age sites all over the world. Parts of the MonetaPro system are based on forms of electronic currency, so we “coined” the name to give homage to the creation of money.

Yes, we are MonetaPro – the most progressive financial transaction engine possible.