Weird Currency: Difference between revisions

* Yap (an island in the South Pacific) used carved wheel-like stones from another island as high-value "coin", called "Rai". Because individual stones could be over two meters across,they attracted much curiosity and some misinterpretations (summarized [http://jpkoning.blogspot.com/2013/01/yap-stones-and-myth-of-fiat-money.html here]). For everyday uses, they had more convenient goods - pearl shells, pearl shell bead necklaces, ceremonial pestles and woven mats.

* A currency shortage in pre-revolution North America <ref>It was illegal for British gold and silver coinage to be exported to the colonies, to the point they paid government employees with foreign Spanish currency, which was not restricted.</ref> resulted in implementation of a tobacco standard by Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. Farmers would deliver their crop to a government warehouse, and in exchange would receive tobacco notes, which could be redeemed for the same amount of tobacco or traded as though they were that weight of tobacco. As they represented a renewable good subject to market trends, the value of these certificates was relatively unstable.