there've been many, digicash, ecash, egold, but the problem with every single one of them is they depended on a central figure to lord over it to keep it in check. they were all effectively entries on a ledger just like bank accounts or paypal accounts are.

bitcoin is the first that didn't require that which is why it's become such a huge deal. the predecessors central element went bankrupt or were shut down and that was that. that's impossible for bitcoin.

none of the forerunners were crypto currencies though.