Numismatics (Latin: numisma, nomisma,"coin" from the Greek: vouiÇelv = nomízein, "to use according to law") is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and the exchange of goods. Notaphily is the study of paper money or banknotes. A notaphilist is a collector of banknotes, paper money, paper currency or plastic notes. It is believed that people have been collecting paper money for as long as it has been in use. While people began collecting paper currency more systematically in the 1940s, the turning point occurred in the 1970s when notaphily was established as a separate area by collectors. The term was devised in this decade by a group of employees working for the collectors and investements firm Stanley Gibbons, in a successful attempt to formalise and encourage interest in the area. At the same time, some developed countries began publishing their respective national catalogues of paper money, which represented major points of reference literature. Lacking a structured monetary system, people in the past lived in a barter society and used locally-found items of inherent or implied value. Early money used by people is referred to as "Odd and Curious". but the use of other goods in barter exchange is excluded, even where used as a circulating currency (e.g., cigarettes in prison). The Kyrgyz people used horses as the principal currency unit and gave small change in lambskins. The lambskins may be suitable for numismatic study, but the horse is not. Many objects have been used for centuries, such as cowry shells were legal tender in the South Asia from time immemorial, until the East India Company introduced modern currency. Economic and historical studies of money's use and development are an integral part of the numismatists' study of money's physical embodiment. Coin collecting may have existed in ancient times. The first book on coins was De Asse et Partibus (1514) by Guillaume Budé. During the early Renaissance ancient coins were collected by European royalty and nobility. Professional societies organized in the 19th century. The Royal Numismatic Society was founded in 1836. The American Numismatic Society was founded in 1858. In 1931 the British Academy launched the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum publishing collections of Ancient Greek coinage. The first volume of Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles was published in 1958. In the 20th century as well the coins were seen more as archaeological objects. After World War II in Germany a project, Fundmünzen der Antike (Coin finds of the Classical Period) was launched, to register every coin found within Germany. This idea found successors in many countries.