In this paper, I begin with a short review of the major semiotic contributions on money and economic value, from both the dyadic (Saussurean) and triadic (Peircean) traditions. I then examine the evolution of money from its prehistory as barter to present day electronic currencies. In each phase, I argue that the money sign increased in arbitrariness and became better for thinking, before all other deriving financial benefits. I focus the analysis on two dimensions. First, the temporal dimension, by assuming Goetzmann’s idea that money and finance are crucial for “the ability of humans to imagine and calculate the future”. The second dimension, in which I find a deep homology between money and our human condition, is in the scarcity principle, which relates to scarce (or finite) temporality and is the structure of any possible sense of our being according to Heidegger.
