1.
Gold certificate
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A gold certificate in general is a certificate of ownership that gold owners hold instead of storing the actual gold. It has both a historic meaning as a U. S. paper currency and a current meaning as a way to invest in gold, Banks may issue gold certificates for gold that is allocated or unallocated. Unallocated gold certificates are a form of banking and do not guarantee an equal exchange for metal in the event of a run on the issuing banks gold on deposit. Allocated gold certificates should be correlated with specific numbered bars, although it is difficult to determine whether a bank is improperly allocating a single bar to more than one party, the gold certificate was used from 1863 to 1933 in the United States as a form of paper currency. Each certificate gave its title to a corresponding amount of gold coin at the statutory rate of $20.67 per troy ounce established by the Coinage Act of 1834. Therefore, this type of currency was intended to represent actual gold coinage. In 1933 the practice of redeeming these notes for coins was ended by the U. S. government. After the gold recall in 1933, gold certificates were withdrawn from circulation, as noted above, it was illegal to own them. That fact, and public fear that the notes would be devalued and made obsolete, in general, the notes are scarce and valuable, especially examples in new condition. The early history of United States gold certificates is somewhat hazy and they were authorized under the Act of 3 March 1863, but unlike the United States Notes also authorized, they apparently were not printed until 1865. They did not have a date, and were hand-dated upon issue. The first issue featured a vignette of an eagle uniformly across all denominations, several later issues featured various portraits of historical figures. The reverse sides were either blank or featured abstract designs, the only exception was the $20 of 1865, which had a picture of a $20 gold coin. From 1862 to 1879, United States Notes were legal tender, however some transactions, such as customs duties and interest on the federal debt, were required to be made in gold. Thus the early gold certificates were acceptable in some transactions where United States Notes were not, the Series of 1882 was the first series that was payable to the bearer, it was transferable and anyone could redeem it for the equivalent in gold. This was the case with all gold certificate series from that point on, with the exception of 1888,1900, the series of 1888 and 1900 were issued to specific depositors, as before. The series of 1882 had the portraits as the series of 1875. Gold certificates, along all other U. S. currency, were made in two sizes—a larger size from 1865 to 1928, and a smaller size from 1928 to 1934
2.
Silver certificate (United States)
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Silver certificates are a type of representative money issued between 1878 and 1964 in the United States as part of its circulation of paper currency. They were produced in response to silver agitation by citizens who were angered by the Fourth Coinage Act, the certificates were initially redeemable for their face value of silver dollar coins and later in raw silver bullion. Since 1968 they have been only in Federal Reserve Notes and are thus obsolete. Large-size silver certificates were issued initially in denominations from $10 to $1,000 and in 1886 the $1, $2, in 1928, all United States bank notes were re-designed and the size reduced. The small-size silver certificate was issued in denominations of $1, $5. The complete type set below is part of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonians National Museum of American History, the Coinage Act of 1873 intentionally omitted language authorizing the coinage of “standard” silver dollars and ended the bimetallic standard that had been created by Alexander Hamilton. By 1875 business interests invested in silver wanted the bimetallic standard restored, people began to refer to the passage of the Act as the Crime of 73. Further public agitation for silver use was driven by fear that there was not enough money in the community. Members of Congress claimed ignorance that the 1873 law would lead to the demonetization of silver, some blamed the passage of the Act on a number of external factors including a conspiracy involving foreign investors and government conspirators. In response, the Bland–Allison Act, as it came to be known, was passed by Congress on 28 February 1878, the first silver certificates were issued in denominations of $10 through $1,000. Reception by financial institutions was cautious, while more convenient and less bulky than dollar coins, the silver certificate was not accepted for all transactions. Congress used the National Banking Act of 12 July 1882 to clarify the legal status of silver certificates by clearly authorizing them to be included in the lawful reserves of national banks. A general appropriations act of 4 August 1886 authorized the issue of $1, $2, the introduction of low-denomination currency greatly increased circulation. Over the 12-year lifespan of the Bland–Allison Act, the United States government would receive a seigniorage amounting to roughly $68 million, Treasury Secretary Franklin MacVeagh appointed a committee to investigate possible advantages to issuing smaller sized United States banknotes. Due in part to the outbreak of World War I and the end of his appointed term, any recommendations may have stalled. On 20 August 1925, Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon appointed a committee and in May 1927 accepted their recommendations for the size reduction. On 10 July 1929 the new currency was issued. This required that the Treasury maintain stocks of dollars to back
3.
Coin
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A coin is a small, flat, round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by a government, Coins are usually metal or alloy, or sometimes made of synthetic materials. Coins made of metal are stored in large quantities as bullion coins. Other coins are used as money in transactions, circulating alongside banknotes. Usually the highest value coin in circulation is less than the lowest-value note. In the last hundred years, the value of circulation coins has occasionally been lower than the value of the metal they contain. Exceptions to the rule of face value being higher than content value also occur for some bullion coins made of copper, silver, or gold, while the Eagle, Maple Leaf, and Sovereign coins have nominal face values, the Krugerrand does not. The first coins were developed independently in Iron Age Anatolia and Archaic Greece, India, Coins spread rapidly in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, throughout Greece and Persia, and further to the Balkans. Standardized Roman currency was used throughout the Roman Empire, important Roman gold and silver coins were continued into the Middle Ages. Fiat money first arose in medieval China, with the paper money. Early paper money was introduced in Europe in the later Middle Ages, the penny was minted as a silver coin until the 17th century. The first circulating United States coins were cents, produced in 1793, Coins were an evolution of currency systems of the Late Bronze Age, where standard-sized ingots, and tokens such as knife money, were used to store and transfer value. In the late Chinese Bronze Age, standardized cast tokens were made and these were replicas in bronze of earlier Chinese currency, cowrie shells, so they were named Bronze Shell. According to Aristotle and Pollux, the first issuer of coins was Hermodike of Kyme The earliest coins are associated with Iron Age Anatolia. Early electrum coins were not standardized in weight, and in their earliest stage may have been ritual objects, such as badges or medals, issued by priests. The first Lydian coins were made of electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of silver, most of the early Lydian coins include no writing, only an image of a symbolic animal. Anatolian Artemis was the Πὀτνια Θηρῶν, whose symbol was the stag, a small percentage of early Lydian/Greek coins have a legend
4.
William Stanley Jevons
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William Stanley Jevons FRS was an English economist and logician. Irving Fisher described Jevons book A General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy as the start of the method in economics. It made the case that economics as a science concerned with quantities is necessarily mathematical, in so doing, it expounded upon the final utility theory of value. Jevons work, along with similar discoveries made by Carl Menger in Vienna and by Léon Walras in Switzerland, Jevons contribution to the marginal revolution in economics in the late 19th century established his reputation as a leading political economist and logician of the time. Jevons broke off his studies of the sciences in London in 1854 to work as an assayer in Sydney. Returning to the UK in 1859, he published General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy in 1862, outlining the marginal utility theory of value, and A Serious Fall in the Value of Gold in 1863. The most important of his works on logic and scientific methods is his Principles of Science, as well as The Theory of Political Economy, among his inventions was the logic piano, a mechanical computer. Jevons was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England and his father, Thomas Jevons, a man of strong scientific tastes and a writer on legal and economic subjects, was an iron merchant. His mother Mary Anne Jevons was the daughter of William Roscoe, at the age of fifteen he was sent to London to attend the University College School. The idea of leaving the UK was distasteful, but pecuniary considerations had, in consequence of the failure of his fathers firm in 1847, become of vital importance, Jevons left the UK for Sydney in June 1854 to take up a role as an Assayer at the Mint. Jevons lived with his colleague and his wife first at Church Hill, then in Annangrove at Petersham, in letters to his family he described his life, took photographs and produced a social map of Sydney. Jevons returned to England via America five years later, not long after taking his M. A. degree Jevons obtained a post as tutor at Owens College, Manchester. In 1866 he was elected professor of logic and mental and moral philosophy, next year he married Harriet Ann Taylor, whose father, John Edward Taylor, had been the founder and proprietor of the Manchester Guardian. Jevons suffered a good deal from ill health and sleeplessness, in 1876 he was glad to exchange the Owens professorship for the professorship of political economy in University College, London. Travelling and music were the principal recreations of his life, but his continued to be bad. He found his professorial duties increasingly irksome, and feeling that the pressure of work left him no spare energy. On 13 August 1882 he drowned whilst bathing near Hastings, Jevons was a prolific writer, and at the time of his death was a leader in the UK both as a logician and as an economist. Alfred Marshall said of his work in economics that it will probably be found to have more constructive force than any, save that of Ricardo, Stanley Jevons was brought up a Christian Unitarian, and excerpts from his journals indicate he remained committed to his Christian beliefs until death
5.
Banknote
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A banknote is a type of negotiable instrument known as a promissory note, made by a bank, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by banks, who were legally required to redeem the notes for legal tender when presented to the chief cashier of the originating bank. These commercial banknotes only traded at face value in the served by the issuing bank. Commercial banknotes have primarily been replaced by national banknotes issued by central banks, national banknotes are generally legal tender, meaning that medium of payment is allowed by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation. Historically, banks sought to ensure that they could always pay customers in coins when they presented banknotes for payment and this practice of backing notes with something of substance is the basis for the history of central banks backing their currencies in gold or silver. Today, most national currencies have no backing in precious metals or commodities and have value only by fiat, with the exception of non-circulating high-value or precious metal issues, coins are used for lower valued monetary units, while banknotes are used for higher values. The idea of using a durable light-weight substance as evidence of a promise to pay a bearer on demand originated in China during the Han Dynasty in 118 BC, the first known banknote was first developed in China during the Tang and Song dynasties, starting in the 7th century. Its roots were in merchant receipts of deposit during the Tang Dynasty, as merchants, during the Yuan Dynasty, banknotes were adopted by the Mongol Empire. In Europe, the concept of banknotes was first introduced during the 13th century by such as Marco Polo. Counterfeiting, the forgery of banknotes, is an inherent challenge in issuing currency and it is countered by anticounterfeiting measures in the printing of banknotes. Fighting the counterfeiting of banknotes and cheques has been a driver of security printing methods development in recent centuries. Paper currency first developed in the Tang Dynasty China during the 7th century, although true paper money did not appear until the 11th century, the usage of paper currency later spread throughout the Mongol Empire. European explorers like Marco Polo introduced the concept in Europe during the 13th century, napoleon issued paper banknotes in the early 1800s. Paper money originated in two forms, drafts, which are receipts for value held on account, and bills, the perception of banknotes as money has evolved over time. Originally, money was based on precious metals, Banknotes were seen as essentially an I. O. U. or promissory note, a promise to pay someone in precious metal on presentation. With the gradual removal of precious metals from the system, banknotes evolved to represent credit money. Notes or bills were referred to in 18th century novels and were often a key part of the plot such as a note drawn by Lord X for £100 which becomes due in 3 months time. Its roots were in merchant receipts of deposit during the Tang Dynasty, as merchants, before the use of paper, the Chinese used coins that were circular, with a rectangular hole in the middle
6.
Columbia University
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Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1754 as Kings College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain, after the American Revolutionary War, Kings College briefly became a state entity, and was renamed Columbia College in 1784. Columbia is one of the fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities and was the first school in the United States to grant the M. D. degree. The university also has global research outposts in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Paris, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Asunción, Columbia administers annually the Pulitzer Prize. Additionally,100 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Columbia as students, researchers, faculty, Columbia is second only to Harvard University in the number of Nobel Prize-winning affiliates, with over 100 recipients of the award as of 2016. In 1746 an act was passed by the assembly of New York to raise funds for the foundation of a new college. Classes were initially held in July 1754 and were presided over by the colleges first president, Dr. Johnson was the only instructor of the colleges first class, which consisted of a mere eight students. Instruction was held in a new schoolhouse adjoining Trinity Church, located on what is now lower Broadway in Manhattan, in 1763, Dr. Johnson was succeeded in the presidency by Myles Cooper, a graduate of The Queens College, Oxford, and an ardent Tory. In the charged political climate of the American Revolution, his opponent in discussions at the college was an undergraduate of the class of 1777. The suspension continued through the occupation of New York City by British troops until their departure in 1783. The colleges library was looted and its sole building requisitioned for use as a hospital first by American. Loyalists were forced to abandon their Kings College in New York, the Loyalists, led by Bishop Charles Inglis fled to Windsor, Nova Scotia, where they founded Kings Collegiate School. After the Revolution, the college turned to the State of New York in order to restore its vitality, the Legislature agreed to assist the college, and on May 1,1784, it passed an Act for granting certain privileges to the College heretofore called Kings College. The Regents finally became aware of the colleges defective constitution in February 1787 and appointed a revision committee, in April of that same year, a new charter was adopted for the college, still in use today, granting power to a private board of 24 Trustees. On May 21,1787, William Samuel Johnson, the son of Dr. Samuel Johnson, was unanimously elected President of Columbia College, prior to serving at the university, Johnson had participated in the First Continental Congress and been chosen as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. The colleges enrollment, structure, and academics stagnated for the majority of the 19th century, with many of the college presidents doing little to change the way that the college functioned. In 1857, the college moved from the Kings College campus at Park Place to a primarily Gothic Revival campus on 49th Street and Madison Avenue, during the last half of the 19th century, under the leadership of President F. A. P. Barnard, the institution assumed the shape of a modern university
7.
Precious metal
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A precious metal is a rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical element of high economic value. Chemically, the precious metals tend to be less reactive than most elements and they are usually ductile and have a high lustre. Historically, precious metals were important as currency but are now regarded mainly as investment, Gold, silver, platinum, and palladium each have an ISO4217 currency code. The best known precious metals are the metals, gold. Although both have industrial uses, they are known for their uses in art, jewelry, fine jewelry. Other precious metals include the platinum metals, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium. The demand for metals is driven not only by their practical use but also by their role as investments. Historically, precious metals have commanded much higher prices than common industrial metals, a metal is deemed to be precious if it is rare. The discovery of new sources of ore or improvements in mining or refining processes may cause the value of a metal to diminish. The status of a metal can also be determined by high demand or market value. Precious metals in bulk form are known as bullion and are traded on commodity markets, bullion metals may be cast into ingots or minted into coins. The defining attribute of bullion is that it is valued by its mass, the level of purity varies from issue to issue. The purest mass-produced bullion coins are in the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf series, a 100% pure bullion is nearly impossible, as the percentage of impurities diminishes, it becomes progressively more difficult to purify the metal further. Historically, coins had an amount of weight of alloy. The Krugerrand is the first modern example of measuring in pure gold, other bullion coins show neither the purity nor the fine-gold weight on the coin but are recognized and consistent in their composition. Many coins historically showed a denomination in currency, although nominally issued as legal tender, these coins face value as currency is far below that of their value as bullion. For instance, Canada mints a gold coin at a face value of $50 containing one troy ounce of gold—as of May 2011. Bullion coins minting by national governments gives them some numismatic value in addition to their bullion value, one of the largest bullion coins in the world was the 10, 000-dollar Australian Gold Nugget coin minted in Australia which consists of a full kilogram of 99. 9% pure gold
8.
Salt
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Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent. The open ocean has about 35 grams of solids per litre, Salt is essential for life in general, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. The tissues of animals contain larger quantities of salt than do plant tissues, Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and salting is an important method of food preservation. Salt was also prized by the ancient Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Hittites, Egyptians, and the Indians. Salt became an important article of trade and was transported by boat across the Mediterranean Sea, along specially built salt roads, the scarcity and universal need for salt has led nations to go to war over it and use it to raise tax revenues. Salt is used in ceremonies and has other cultural significance. Salt is processed from salt mines, or by the evaporation of seawater or mineral-rich spring water in shallow pools. Its major industrial products are caustic soda and chlorine, and is used in industrial processes including the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride, plastics, paper pulp. Of the annual production of around two hundred million tonnes of salt, only about 6% is used for human consumption. Other uses include water conditioning processes, de-icing highways, and agricultural use, edible salt is sold in forms such as sea salt and table salt which usually contains an anti-caking agent and may be iodised to prevent iodine deficiency. As well as its use in cooking and at the table, sodium is an essential nutrient for human health via its role as an electrolyte and osmotic solute. Excessive salt consumption can increase the risk of diseases, such as hypertension, in children. Such health effects of salt have long been studied, accordingly, numerous world health associations and experts in developed countries recommend reducing consumption of popular salty foods. The World Health Organization recommends that adults should consume less than 2,000 mg of sodium, humans have always tended to build communities either around sources of salt, or where they can trade for it. All through history the availability of salt has been pivotal to civilization, the word salary comes from the Latin word for salt because the Roman Legions were sometimes paid in salt. The Natron Valley was a key region that supported the Egyptian Empire to its north, because it supplied it with a kind of salt that came to be called by its name, natron. Even before this, what is now thought to have been the first city in Europe is Solnitsata, in Bulgaria, even the name Solnisata means salt works. A very ancient salt-works operation has been discovered at the Poiana Slatinei archaeological site next to a spring in Lunca, Neamț County
9.
Shell money
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Shell money is a medium of exchange similar to money that was once commonly used in many parts of the world. Shell money usually consisted either of sea shells or pieces of them. The use of shells in trade began as direct commodity exchange, the distinction between beads as commodities and beads as money has been the subject of debate among economic anthropologists. Some form of shell money appears to have found on almost every continent, America, Asia, Africa. The shell most widely used worldwide as currency was the shell of Cypraea moneta, cowry shell money was important at one time or another in the trade networks of Africa, South Asia, and East Asia. In western Africa, shell money was legal tender up until the mid 19th century. Before the abolition of the trade, large shipments of cowry shells were sent to some of the English ports for reshipment to the slave coast. It was also common in West Central Africa as the currency of the Kingdom of Kongo called locally nzimbu, as the value of the cowry was much greater in West Africa than in the regions from which the supply was obtained, the trade was extremely lucrative. In some cases the gains are said to have been 500%, the use of the cowry currency gradually spread inland in Africa. By about 1850 the German explorer Heinrich Barth found it widespread in Kano, Kuka, Gando. The shells were used in the parts of Africa until the early 20th century. The shell of the land snail, Achatina monetaria, cut into circles with an open center was also used as coin in Benguella. In China, cowries were so important that many characters relating to money or trade contain the character for cowry, starting over three thousand years ago, cowry shells, or copies of the shells, were used as Chinese currency. The Classical Chinese character for money/currency, 貝, originated as a pictograph of a cowrie shell, cowries were formerly used as means of exchange in India. In Bengal, where it required 3840 to make a rupee, in Southeast Asia, when the value of the Siamese tical was about half a troy ounce of silver, the value of the cowrie was fixed at 1⁄6400 Baht. In modern Thailand, it refers to interest paid for the use of borrowed or deposited. In Orissa, India, cowry the currency was used till 1805 which was replaced by the British East India company which was one of the causes of Paik rebellion in 1817. In northern Australia, different shells were used by different tribes, in the islands north of New Guinea the shells were broken into flakes
10.
Shekel
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Shekel is any of several ancient units of weight or of currency. Initially, it may have referred to a weight of barley and this shekel was about 180 grains. Since 1980, the shekel has been the main unit in Israel. The Hebrew word shekel is based on the root for weighing, cognate to the Akkadian šiqlu or siqlu. Use of the word was first attested in c.2150 BC during the Akkadian Empire under the reign of Naram-Sin, and later in c.1700 BC in the Code of Hammurabi. The ŠQL root is found in the Hebrew words for to weigh, weight and consideration, and is related to the TQL root in Aramaic and the ΘQL root in Arabic, such as the words thiqal or Mithqal. The famous writing on the wall in the Biblical Book of Daniel includes a use of the word in Aramaic, Mene, mene, teqel. The word shekel came into the English language via the Hebrew Bible, the earliest shekels were a unit of weight, used as other units such as grams and troy ounces for trading before the advent of coins. Coins were used and may have been invented by the early Anatolian traders who stamped their marks to avoid weighing each time used. Herodotus states that the first coinage was issued by Croesus, King of Lydia, spreading to the golden Daric, issued by the Persian Empire, early coins were money stamped with an official seal to certify their weight. Silver ingots, some with markings were issued, later authorities decided who designed coins. As with many ancient units, the shekel had a variety of values depending on era, government and region, the shekel was common among western Semitic peoples. Moabites, Edomites, and Phoenicians used the shekel, although proper coinage developed very late, Carthaginian coinage was based on the shekel and may have preceded its home town of Tyre in issuing proper coins.87 grams.3 grams. The Carthaginian or Punic shekel was typically around 7.2 grams in silver and 7.5 grams in gold and they were apparently first developed on Sicily during the mid-4th century BC. The Tyrian shekel began to be issued c. 300 BC, owing to the relative purity of their silver, they were the preferred medium of payment for the Temple tax in Jerusalem despite their royal and pagan imagery. The Jerusalem shekel was issued from AD66 to 70 amid the First Jewish Revolt as a means of emphasizing the independence of Judaea from Roman rule, the Bar Kochba shekel was issued from AD132 to 135 amid the Bar Kokhba Revolt for similar reasons. The Israeli shekel replaced the Israeli lira or pound in 1980 and its currency sign was ⟨⟩, although it was more commonly denominated as S or IS. It was subdivided into 100 new agoras or agorot and it suffered from hyperinflation and was quickly replaced
11.
Cocoa bean
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The beans are the basis of chocolate, and of such Mesoamerican foods as mole and tejate. The word cocoa comes from the Spanish word cacao, which is derived from the Nahuatl word cacahuatl, the Nahuatl word, in turn, ultimately derives from the reconstructed Proto Mije-Sokean word *kakaw~*kakawa. It originated in Central America and parts of Mexico, more than 5,000 years ago, it was consumed by pre-Columbian cultures along the Yucatán, including the Mayans, and as far back as Olmeca civilization in spiritual ceremonies. It also grows in the foothills of the Andes in the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America and its range may have been larger in the past, evidence of its wild range may be obscured by cultivation of the tree in these areas since long before the Spanish arrived. The cocoa bean was a currency throughout Mesoamerica before the Spanish conquest. Cacao trees grow in a geographical zone, of about 20° to the north and south of the Equator. Nearly 70% of the world today is grown in West Africa. The cacao plant was first given its name by Swedish natural scientist Carl Linnaeus in his original classification of the plant kingdom. Cocoa was an important commodity in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, flavored with vanilla or other spices, his chocolate was whipped into a froth that dissolved in the mouth. No fewer than 60 portions each day reportedly may have been consumed by Moctezuma II, chocolate was introduced to Europe by the Spaniards, and became a popular beverage by the mid-17th century. They also introduced the tree into the West Indies and the Philippines. It was also introduced into the rest of Asia and into West Africa by Europeans, in the Gold Coast, modern Ghana, cacao was introduced by an African, Tetteh Quarshie. Due to heat buildup in the process, cacao beans lose most of the purplish hue and become mostly brown in color. This skin is released easily after roasting by winnowing, white seeds are found in some rare varieties, usually mixed with purples, and are considered of higher value. The three main varieties of plant are Forastero, Criollo, and Trinitario. The first is the most widely used, comprising 80-90% of the production of cocoa. Cocoa beans of the Criollo variety are rarer and considered a delicacy, Criollo plantations have lower yields than those of Forastero, and also tend to be less resistant to several diseases that attack the cocoa plant, hence very few countries still produce it. One of the largest producers of Criollo beans is Venezuela, Trinitario is a hybrid between Criollo and Forastero varieties
12.
Rai stones
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Rai, or stone money, are large, circular stone disks carved out of limestone formed from aragonite and calcite crystals. Rai stones were quarried on several of the Micronesian islands, mainly Palau, but briefly on Guam as well and they have been used in trade by the Yapese as a form of currency. The monetary system of Yap relies on a history of ownership. Because these stones are too large to move, buying an item with one simply involves agreeing that the ownership has changed. As long as the transaction is recorded in the history, it will now be owned by the person it is passed on to. Rai stones are circular disks with a hole in the middle, the stones vary widely in size, the largest are 3.6 meters in diameter,0.5 meters thick and weigh 4 metric tons. The largest rai stone is located on Rumung island, near Riy village, smaller rai stones might have a diameter of 7–8 centimetres. The extrinsic value of a stone is based not only on its size and craftsmanship. If many people—or no one at all—died when the stone was transported, or a famous sailor brought it in. Many of them are placed in front of meetinghouses or along pathways, the physical location of the stone may not matter—though the ownership of a particular stone changes, the stone itself is rarely moved due to its weight and risk of damage. The names of owners are passed down to the new one. In one instance, a large rai being transported by canoe and outrigger was accidentally dropped, although it was never seen again, everyone agreed that the rai must still be there, so it continued to be transacted as genuine currency. What is important is that ownership of the rai is clear to everyone, Yapese quarried the limestone rocks from the islands of Palau and took them to Yap with canoes and rafts. There is evidence that some limestone has been mined in Palau by Yapese as early as 500 AD, local legend holds that the Yapese discovered the rock of Palau about 500–600 years ago when an expedition led by a man called Anagumang landed on Palau. Limestone was nonexistent in Yap and therefore valuable to the Yapese. First Anagumang ordered his men to cut stone into the shape of fish but eventually a circular shape was chosen, a pole was put through the hole in the center of the stone so that laborers could carry the stone. The largest of the disks probably needed hundreds of men to transport, residents of Palau in turn required Yapese to pay in beads, coconut meat and copra or in the form of services for the privilege of quarrying. It is unknown how long money stones have been used in Yap, flat rocks have been found there that are up to 2000 years old, but the oldest do not resemble todays rai stones, and it is not known if they were used as money
