Stone Money- dragon570

When I think of coins I imagine of pennies, nickel, dimes, and quarters that can fit into my pant pocket. That’s a different story for the people of Yap who have coins that are taller, bigger, and stronger then themselves. They call it fei another name for it could be stone money. Their stone money is a type of rock called limestone. Yap is a tiny island that is in the Pacific Ocean. When I first heard this story I thought it was really silly because they cant move the coin when they claim it. Later when I read the article “The Island of Stone Money” it gave me a better understanding of it. David Kestenbaum and a couple of other people broadcasted about stone money. They were a little astounded about the size of the money. they also understood the value of money. Money is worth whatever we an get for it. It doesn’t really have a real value of it.

Planet Money team did a broadcast of Brazil’s fight against money. In the broadcast called “How Fake Money Saved Brazil” it talks about how inflation in Brazil reached 80% a month just because the government decided to use printed money to build a new capital. Luckily, 4 former graduate students helped save their country’s economy with “fake money”. Everyday grocery store prices went from cheap to expensive. For example, a bag of chips may cost $1, however, after a month it may cost $10 for one bag. People were tricked into thinking that money had value when that wasn’t true. They used something called “virtual currency”. It tricked them into thinking that their new currency was in URV’s (unit of real value), but in actuality it wasn’t. It was a good way to help the economy from heading towards bankruptcy.

My concept for money has change because all my life I always heard people say that money is valuable. However, after reading the essay, listening to the broadcast,and discussing it in class. I have more of an understanding of money. That money could be fiction because it’s what you can get from it. When I heard the story about the United States put gold in a drawer and labeling it “France” it reminded me of the stone money in Yap because they don’t have physical possession of it but we still left it in the drawer for nobody to touch and just put a label on it. Later, we could have used it towards the Great Depression it would have helped us get out of the hard thing this nation went through. If the people of Yap came to the United States and saw our currency and how we spend it I believe they would be shocked because we pay for everything with a swipe of a card.

In the essay, “The Island of Stone Money” by Milton Friedman. He talks about how an ancestor and a group of people went out to found stone money. They were on their way back to the island but there was a strong storm and they group of people had to let go of stone money to save their saves. It sunk to the bottom of the ocean and they came back telling story about their journey. The people of the island decided that the coin at the bottom of the ocean was the ancestors’. Even though it’s not physically in their possession it’s still labeled as theirs. In Caroline Lafargue article,” Yap’s Stone Money” she stated that  “And it could be easy to assume that the biggest stones would be considered the most valuable. But in reality the value can depend on each stone’s individual story.” Each person has a story to tell bout how they adventure to get this big piece of stone.

In the broadcast by NPR, they learned about the stone money at Yap and they figured out that the value of money isn’t really real. For example, when you get paid you don’t get money handed to you nowadays, instead it’s sent to your bank account the only thing that changes it the number you see when you go into your bank account. In my class discussion I found out that the more money I have the less the dollar is worth. For example, If I get paid $288 one week and go to the store to buy something that’s a dollar it doesn’t seems expensive to me because I have $287 left.

Work Cited

Friedman, Milton. “The Island of Stone Money.” Diss. Hoover Institution, Stanford University , 1991.

Goldstein, Jacob. “The Island Of Stone Money.” NPR. Planet Money, 10 Dec. 2010. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.

Joffe-Walt, Chana. “How Fake Money Saved Brazil.” NPR. NPR, 4 Oct. 210. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.

Koning, JP. “Yap Stones and the Myth of Fiat Money.” Moneyness:. N.p., 4 Jan. 2013. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.

Lafargue, Caroline. “Yap’s Stone Money: The Largest and Heaviest Currency in the World.” ABC Radio Australia. ABC Radio Australia, 11 May 2016. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.