Rai Stones
About Rai Stones
The massive stone discs of Yap island in Micronesia, used as a store of wealth. The largest rai stones are over 3.5 meters in diameter. Quarried in Palau and transported by canoe across open ocean. The stones rarely moved physically. Ownership was transferred by communal agreement, creating what some economists consider an early form of immaterial or ledger based money. The rai stone system demonstrates that money depends on social consensus, not physical portability.
Related Entries
Aztec Cocoa Money
The Aztecs used cocoa beans as currency. A rabbit cost 10 cocoa beans and a slave cost 100. Cocoa be...
Wampum
Shell beads used as currency and record keeping by Native American tribes of the Northeast. White be...
Cowrie Shell
Cowrie shells were used as currency across Africa, Asia, and Oceania for thousands of years. The mon...