And the other is ‘spending money’ currency for conspicuous consumption. Anything other than essential needs.
I feel like money should be the next disruption. I don’t see any other way to crack poverty.
The "retail" currency was typically copper, though other base metals (iron, in China) were also used.
The "wholesale" currency, silver.
In England there was also the gold Guinea, which might be considered a finance / government coin, though I'm not specifically aware that it was seen as such.
I'm largely familiar with the coinage as discussed (at considerable length) in Smith's Wealth of Nations. He doesn't draw the distinction I do here, though it seems a fairly natural one.
Note that in pre-decimal English currency, the smallest coinage was the farthing ("four-thing", 1/4 of a pence), and there were 240 pence to the pound (12 pence (d) per shilling (p), 20 shillings per pound (£). If you consider a farthing as the smallest practical unit of currency, roughly a present-day dollar, a pound would be $960.
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/economic/currency.htm
A labourer's wages were about £2/yr, or 5 farthings/day.
http://medieval.ucdavis.edu/120D/Money.html
For modern variants, the notion of a non-accumulating "daily-spend" currency, and various durable currencies but utlisable only in specific transactions, might make certain amounts of sense. I've toyed with this notion off and on for a few years.