History Main / PracticalCurrency

* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': Mora looks like a standard fantasy [[GoldSilverCopperStandard gold coin]], but is noted to function as an all-purpose magical catalyst, explaining why you have to use it to enhance weapons and artifacts. It is created and backed by Morax, the God of Contracts, also known as the Geo Archon Rex Lapis. This has resulted in his nation of Liyue being an economic powerhouse. Ironically, Rex Lapis turns out to be ''[[MoneyDumb absolutely terrible with money]]'', to the point of casually promising millions of mora even for small favors and being in serious trouble when he realizes he doesn't have access to his mint any more.

* The Mora of ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' looks like a standard fantasy [[GoldSilverCopperStandard gold coin]], but is noted to function as an all-purpose magical catalyst, explaining why you have to use it to enhance weapons and artifacts.

* In some of the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' games, rings are often used as a currency. Rings have had practical uses (such as protection) since the beginning of the series.

* ''TabletopGame/RedMarkets'': The DHQS bounty on pre-Crash legal documents has led to drivers licenses as the most common currency on both sides of the fence, redeemable for about one day's rations.

* In the ''{{VideoGame/Fallout}}'' series, bottlecaps are normally WeirdCurrency instead, but in games where you can craft bottlecap mines... In addition, ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' gives you the crafting recipe for filling a shotshell with silver coins, courtesy of Caesar's Legion.

* In the 1998 Russian movie ''Film/{{Checkpoint}}'' (Blokpost Блокпост), Russian soldiers in UsefulNotes/TheChechnyaWars use bullets to buy the services of a local prostitute. Knowing the bullets are likely to be fired back in their direction, they first boil them for over an hour to make them useless.

* In the 1998 Russian movie ''Checkpoint'' (Blokpost Блокпост), Russian soldiers in UsefulNotes/TheChechnyaWars use bullets to buy the services of a local prostitute. Knowing the bullets are likely to be fired back in their direction, they first boil them for over an hour to make them useless.

*** This actually does back to UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia, since it appears in [[NotesFromTheHouseOfTheDead Notes From the House of the Dead]], a semi-autobiographical novel by Creator/FyodorDostoevsky about his time in the Siberian prison camps.

*** By the time of the third book, ''Literature/{{Oathbringer}}'', the need for spheres with Stormlight has become even more important because the protagonists have discovered and colonized the lost city of Urithiru, which among other things is [[MagiTek filled with machinery that functions by draining and using Stormlight.]] In order to get the city running, they have to trade spheres that have gone dun for spheres with Stormlight, but at such a loss that it is seriously hurting their treasury.
* In Hannu Rajaniemi's ''Literature/TheQuantumThief'', the currency on Mars is ''time''. When one runs out, their mind gets put into a robotic Quiet work body for a few years to earn more. Think [[JustForFun/XMeetsY community service meets forced labor]].

* In Creator/MaryGentle's novel ''Literature/RatsAndGargoyles'', humans are not allowed cash, with a few exceptions; on one occasion, Mayor Tannakin Spatchet tries to pay the White Crow with a wheelbarrow full of brass pans, cheese, candles, paper, and so on.
* Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Literature/SeekersOfTheSky'': Iron. It's rare, because the local incarnation of Jesus wished out most of it out of existence. A character even mentions using gold for currency, only for another character to say that, while gold is valuable, it doesn't have a lot of use. Of course, you better keep all your iron bars in a dry environment. Since many wealthy people also know the FunctionalMagic of the Word, they can keep all their iron valuables safe and dry in their {{Pocket Dimension}}s known as the Cold, to retrieve as needed. There is a scene where the protagonist sees a flagship of TheEmpire with its sides gold-plated (to show off, not for armor). He muses that they could've easily afforded to ''iron''-plate the entire ship, but it would, of course, rust at sea.

WeirdCurrency is a SuperTrope; EnergyEconomy is a SubTrope. See also GoldSilverCopperStandard. This is often used as a way to justify CastFromMoney, and can also justify the MoneySpider trope.