Exotic Currencies

Before I embarked on my travels, I never thought about how money worked. I have learned that anything can be currency as long as it fulfills several key conditions.

— Artur Neha, Traveler

Overview

While coins are what many think of when they think of money, but coins are not the only kind of item that can be exchanged for goods or services. Salt, beads, and seashells represent just a few items that were deemed valuable enough to use as an intermediary good. With the increasingly universal adoption of coins many of these alternative non-coin forms of currency have been classified as exotic currencies.

Salt

Useful as well as requiring great effort to extract. Salt can be used to flavor food and drink, and it can be used to preserve meats. Aside from these most well known uses, it is believed that salt can be used in thousands of different ways. One of these is in de-icing surfaces. It is no wonder then that it has become a highly coveted item. This great range of uses has also made it useful as currency, and practically no one will turn down an offer of salt in exchange for a good or service.

Prizma Beads

Common beads can assume many colors. Few beads can assume all the colors. The surprisingly hefty Prizma Bead assumes the entire color spectrum in a variety of patterns as well as being made of a rare material that is believed to be of Ancient Order design. It is said that the beads can only be found in ancient ruins, though exactly where has been a guarded secret of the The Seven Northern Tribes of Quassus, who use the beads as their currency.
Recently, the wealthy of the Free City of Centrum have started to amass personal collections of the beads. These collections are known among the northern tribes and are not well regarded by the northern tribes.

Jasno Shells

There is a unique and relatively rare kind of shell that is transparent in appearance as well as being smooth to the touch, Jasno Shells. These shells have a unique spiral pattern on the exterior of the shell. These spirals come in various shades of blue, most commonly azure. The interior is plain white but glows in the dark. Thus, Jasno Shells are beautiful enough to be desired by many people yet are rare enough so that many are willing to give items to acquire the shells. It is no surprise then that the Jasno Seashell fulfilled the role of a third good.
Jasno Shells are traded among several isolated tribes along the southern region of the Continental Island of Lluvia, most notably by the Fading Mist. This is largely because the shells can only be found along the southern shoreline of Lluvia.

Stone Spheres of the Spriongaí

Why is the wheel shape considered desirable? It is easier to move the heavy stone carvings when they're sphere shaped rather than brick-shaped. As for why this was used as currency, no one outside the social circles of the Spriongaí People know for certain. Perhaps because the stone is strong and pleasant to look at when polished. The system that uses this currency is rather unique as each stone represents how much stuff one can own. In other words, one cannot own or trade for more things than can be valued against their stone sphere.

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Other Kinds of Currency

There are many other kinds of currency besides the ones listed in this article.
This one article could not cover most of them and still be a reasonable read.
These other currencies may be explored in future articles.
Thus, they are merely listed here:

• Magic Disks
• Magic Crystals
• Sandalwood Disks
• Sugar Crystals
• Livestock
• Violetinė Cheese
• Dölön Tea Bricks
• Shark Teeth
• Ivory Coins
• Cocoa Beans
• Obsidian Shards
• Obsidian Coins
• Rare Gemstones
• High Quality Paper
• Mithral Beads
• Mithral Crosses
• Mithral Cubes

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Note(s) from the Archivists:

Isn't it interesting that many people all over the world gravitate away from barter and employ some third good in their transactions? I guess it's a matter of convenience. - Archivist Savitri