An island called Yap
On the tiny island of Yap, far out in the Pacific Ocean, people once used giant stone wheels as money. Some were as small as a dinner plate. The biggest were taller than a grown-up and needed many people to move.
Lani and Uncle Kai
Lani watched her uncle Kai trade a huge stone coin for a fishing canoe. The stone never moved! “It belongs to the canoe builder now,” said Kai. “We all remember who owns which stone.”
The storm at sea
Once, travelers carved a great stone on a faraway island. A storm swept it off their raft and into the deep ocean. The villagers agreed: the stone was real, they knew whose it was, and it still counted.
Years later
Money is really a promise. It works when people trust each other. When Lani held her first paper note she thought, “this is just a lighter stone.” And a phone payment? “The lightest stone of all.”
Did you know?
The stone money of Yap is called rai. Some of the big stones still stand in villages on the island today, and everyone still knows who they belong to.
Think about it
- Why do you think the villagers trusted the stone at the bottom of the sea?
- What do you trust when you use money today?
- If you invented your own money, what would it be made of?