It is said and claimed by many historians that the first civilization to use "money" assuming you are asking about not gold/silver/bronze but those 3 were the basics of trading but if you are asking about the first currency/paper that was in China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) . When exactly is something that I do not know .. But even in China due to inflation the idea of paper money failed and they abolished it in 1455 and they did not adopt for hundred of years. How? The Material? Before the use of paper, the Chinese used coins that were circular, with a rectangular hole in the middle. But the first paper money was in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) they called it "Jiaozi" then later on this idea became widespread in Europe and eventually worldwide.