no, coins were invented to make payment possible without scales. this led to debasement, where alloys allowed cheaper coins people were fooled were pure gold and were not. the word comes from the fact that gold is not a base metal, but copper and zinc are. cash does refer to storage. money refers to recognised denominations. bitcoin utxos are coins with arbitrary denomination, and payments can merge or split them, not convenient with gold (scales) but easy with bytes. people did not live in the thrall of governments before the invention of parliaments most of history.