On the contrary! This is what people don't understand about the practical need for a medium of exchange. You can only barter directly for so long, and then it becomes a nightmare of trading sixteen times to get one thing you wanted. You'd be spending your days carting around your barrel of items in the hope that maybe one person will be willing to trade what you want for what you have.

Heck, even primitives have had currency, whether beads or shells or anything else that was considered valuable.