History Main / PracticalCurrency

** Actually the use of vodka as currency pre-dates the Nineties, as it started in the USSR due to the government's (unsuccessful) attempts to restrict the sale of alcohol via such clever measures as destroying the vineyards (despite the country's drunks never being interested in wine), restricting the sales of alcohol only to that time of the day everyone must be working, and even rationing vodka. Which led to vodka becoming this trope.

** This actually does back to Tsarist Russia, since appears in [[NotesFromTheHouseOfTheDead Notes From the House of the Dead]], a semi-autobiographical novel by Creator/FyodorDostoevsky.

* It is popularly claimed that Roman soldiers were paid in salt, but [[http://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2017/01/salt-and-salary.html there's no evidence supporting this]]. The word "salarium" (salary) derives from "sal" (salt), but ''why'' is an open question.

* In the British American Colonies and the early United States; whiskey was also used as currency, being a popular product and easier to transport than than heavier corn it was fermented & distilled from. Tax collection sometimes became difficult.

Not so with Practical Currency. You can actually use it for something. Maybe it's some kind of food, medicine, or weaponry. It's not too different from a barter economy--it's still goods in exchange for goods and services--but unlike barter, it also serves as a universal medium of exchange (people who don't need the item itself will still accept it because they can trade it for something else) and a universal measure of an item's value.

In the real world, there is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_money commodity money]]. Not all commodity money is practical currency, however: gold, for example, until very recent times had very few not entirely decorative uses -- mostly, tableware -- but made good commodity money because it is pretty easy to tell what it is (to the uninitiated, silver, aluminum, and steel all look similar at first glance), rare (but not too rare, or else not enough people would have it to make many trades with), divisible (hard to make change with one cow), does not corrode, and had a generally-stable global supply (the last two combine to make it a relatively stable source to put your money in - see the RealLife entry on rice for what happens when it isn't).

* ''[[{{Anime/Akira}} AKIRA]]'': After [[spoiler: Akira's destruction of Neo-Tokyo]], many of the survivors have opted to use things like pills or solar cells as currency instead of Yen.
* The metabugs in ''Anime/DenNohCoil''. Useful for making programs to muck around in cyberspace, and as such to playful kids they're quite the commodity.

* In ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand'', Gotham City is cut off from the rest of the country and thus has no currency, with everyone using a barter system. Bullets are particularly prized; one man is mugged by a guy with a gun, and realizes he is in no danger. If the mugger actually had a bullet in that gun, the bullet would be worth a ''lot'' more than the paltry supplies he hopes to steal.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'', residents of the valley use things like eggs and livestock as currency. Phoney finds this out when he tries to spend Boneville dollars at Lucius's bar, and ends up having to WorkOffTheDebt.
* In ''Hex'', the [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] [[RecycledInSPACE re-skin]] of ''ComicBook/JonahHex'', the standard currency are Soames: pills used to decontaminate radioactive water.
* ''ComicBook/TankGirl'': Water.

* ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager''. When Voyager ends up on the far side of the galaxy, they purchase some local currency by exchanging Federation standard bars of lead-pressed uranium. Earlier it's noted that renegade officer Chakotay has a hefty PriceOnTheirHead in radioactive metal.

* ''Fanfic/TriptychContinuum'': The ''sol''s and ''lune''s, Equestria's original currency. While the coins themselves are made of gold and silver, that wasn't the original source of their value. Their value derived from the inscription on the edge: "Good for nearly all Princess Labor, Public and Private". Any pony could, if they desired, walk up to the palace and trade an appropriate number of these coins in to get the Princesses to perform any of a wide number of tasks for them. And the coins had value even outside of Equestria, because they could be spent to pay for the raising of Sun and Moon.
* ''Fanfic/TheUniversiad'': Similar to the ''Metro'' example below, the Forum's standard currency among them is bullets.

* In ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' the closest thing to currency seen on ScavengerWorld Jakku are packets of dried dough that bake quickly, measured in "portions". The junk dealer to whom Rey sells her findings usually pays her fractions of a portion.
* In ''Film/InTime'', time from one's ''lifespan'' is used as money. As you might expect, this creates an UnstableEquilibrium where the rich are functionally immortal and KillThePoor is taken very, ''very'' literally.

* In the Music/ElvisPresley film ''Film/JailhouseRock'', his prison mentor is the richest man in prison, with hundreds of cartons of cigarettes in his cell.
* In ''Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior'', car fuel (usually gasoline) is the only reliable currency.
* In ''Film/SchindlersList'', during the Holocaust, Oscar Schindler convinces the Jewish business community to fund his factory [[LoopholeAbuse by offering them surplus goods that they can use for barter in the ghetto,]] since he cannot pay them in money as Jews are not allowed to own any.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''

* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' is some kind of an example, since its currency is Meat. [[SubvertedTrope You can't eat it,]] [[DoubleSubversion but you can make "meat paste" to combine items, and smith the Meat into weapons and armor.]]

* The main currency in ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' is metal shards, small pieces of the metal plating used to make the terraforming robots. For the primitive society these advanced alloys are incredibly useful for making weapons and tools and metal shards are a required ingredient for many of the ammo crafting recipes.

* In ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' the closest thing to currency seen on ScavengerWorld Jakku are packets of dried dough that bake quickly, measured in "portions". The junk dealer Rey sells her findings to usually pays her fractions of a portion.

** This was also invoked in the Seventies when Pepsi wanted to break into the Soviet market. The Ruble, being non-convertible, was worthless the moment it left the borders of the USSR (which, by the way would have been illegal anyway), and there were very few things the USSR produced that the west would want. One of those few things was Stolichnaya Vodka. Pepsi accepted payment for syrup and bottling plants with an exclusive distribution license for Stoli ([[LoopholeAbuse actually through a shell company, as soft drink companies at the time were legally forbidden from selling alcohol in the US]]). However, by the late '80s, this arrangement was not going to cover a $3,000,000,000 expansion deal. To cover much of the deal, the USSR paid Pepsi in an even odder Practical Currency -- decommissioned warships[[note]]a frigate, a destroyer and 17 submarines, which, [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer no kidding]], briefly made Pepsi-Cola ''the 7th-largest naval power on earth''[[/note]] that Pepsi sold off for scrap, as well as a number of Soviet merchantmen that Pepsi hired out for shipping.
** Actually the use of vodka as currency predates the Nineties as it started in the USSR due the government's (unsuccessful) attempts to restrict the sale of alcohol via such clever measures as destroying the vineyards (despite the country's drunks never being interested in wine), restricting the sales of alcohol only to that time of the day everyone must be working and even rationing vodka. Which led to vodka becoming this trope.

* During parts of history, rum has been used a currency in Europe and Australia. The [[UsefulNotes/AustralianStatesAndTerritories New South Wales]] Corps, one of the first European military forces, was also known as the Rum Corps because of the corps' major use of rum as a currency, as there wasn't a feasible alternative (shipping currency in would take up room that could be used for more useful things and local infrastructure wasn't developed enough to make their own). When William Bligh (of Bounty [[TheMutiny mutiny]] fame) tried to restrict the trade, it led to a rebellion suitably called the Rum Rebellion. Armed rebels temporarily took over the government, the only time this has ever happened in Australian history.

** Interestingly, some of the German states started to issue their own (formally) unofficial currency during the crisis. Almost all of these were practical currency in some way. Such as coins made out of wood or even coal so they could be burned for warmth, which indeed many people did when the economic crisis ended.

* Medieval Japan used rice as currency (the ''Koku'', or ~150 liters, being defined as the standard ration of rice for a soldier for a year). They ran headlong into the economic crisis, because advances in agriculture and increased wealth (and thus bargaining power) of the city merchants led to the collapse of the rice prices. Which meant that the country-based daimyos and the samurai class, who were traditionally paid in rice, became practically penniless.

* In ''Literature/IfThisIsAMan'', the author tells how, in the BlackMarket of Auschwitz Buna, which involved persons from both inside and outside the camp, the main currency were bread rations, but no more than four days of rations could be exchanged since it could spoil before and the debtor might eat his rations instead, although some inmates managed to have their bread delivered in installements. Another currency were Mahorca tobacco stamps, whose price rose and fall depending of factors such as lack of tobacco outside or an arrival of women to the brothel since these vouchers also allowed Aryan inmates to go there.

* ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'':
** The Final Empire has fairly standard coinage, but it's also the go-to weapon for [[ExtraOredinary steelpushers]], to the point that steel mistings are called coinshots.
** And this coinage is backed by Atium, an ultra-rare metal that gives Mistborn the ability to [[CombatClairvoyance see a short distance into the future]]. While having your economy be dependent on a substance that gets regularly used up may seem like a bad idea, Atium is renewable [[spoiler: due to being the "body" of one of the gods who made the planet]], and the people who own the mine are ''very'' rich, even after the [[GodEmperor Lord Ruler]] takes his cut.

* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'':
** The currency is ''spheres,'' tiny chips of gemstones encased in marble-sized glass balls. But they're not valuable because they're gemstones, but because the gemstones can act as magical foci for various things, particularly ''Soulcasting'' (transmutation magic). Diamonds are the least valuable, because they have the least useful Soulcasting property, whereas emeralds, which can be used to turn stones into food, are the most valuable denomination.
** There's one ''other'' use for spheres: they trap [[{{Mana}} Stormlight]], though this is mostly just used for [[MundaneUtility illumination]]....unless you're a Surgebinder, who powers one's abilities using Stormlight. Thus, [[CastFromMoney the money can be used to fuel superhuman magical powers]], though few people actually ''know'' this.
** 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.

** The idea of paper currency started in ''Going Postal'', when people began using postage stamps as a means of exchange. The postage stamps are backed by the Post Office's services (a penny stamp is effectively a promise to carry a penny's worth of mail), and since the reliability of the Post Office is beyond reproach, they are generally considered to be as good as gold.

* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech:'' [=ComStar=]'s currency, the C-Bill, is based upon a fixed amount of transmission time on the organisation's [[SubspaceAnsible Hyper Pulse Generators]]. The exact amount seems to fluctuate, though its stability versus the currencies of the Great Houses, and that for inter-planetary communications, [=ComStar=] is for all intents and purposes the only game in town, make it very desirable. In the Dark Age, after the HPG network has collapsed aside from a few planets, the C-Bill has naturally become nearly worthless and an economic crisis has occurred throughout the Inner Sphere. One sourcebook mentions that because of all the instability, one of the most commonly used forms of "currency" has now become crates of ammunition.

* ''VideoGame/GhostOfTsushima'' uses bundles of "supplies" as currency. What's actually in them is anyone's guess, but is most likely rice, a case of ShownTheirWork on the developer's part; the Samurai class were traditionally paid in rice. At any rate, since the island is under siege and occupation by the Mongols, supplies of food and medicine would be worth more to the people of the island than any actual money would be.

* In ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'', it's relatively easy to whip up normal funds by magic, so mages often demand payment in ''tass'', a form of condensed and distilled {{Mana}} that has a wide variety of uses: it can make spells stronger or safer to cast, some magic needs an expenditure of mana, and a truly hard-up mage can burn their mana reserves for a quick-and-dirty form of healing.

-> ''"...Do they not see that only [[AppliedPhlebotinum Dust]] can give them what they want? For it is money and power and magic all intertwined in one miraculous substance! It is the essence that binds our civilizations together."''

* ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager''. When Voyager ends up on the far side of the galaxy, they purchase some local currency by exchanging Federation standard bars of lead-pressed uranium.

** Deer pelts were sometimes used as currency, since they were very useful in making tent walls, blankets, and clothing. This may be the origin of a "buck", the American slang word for a dollar.
** Squirrel pelts were often used as the smallest form of currency, and the price of larger skins was counted in terms of how their size compared to them.

* Medieval Japan used rice as currency (the ''Koku'', or ~150 liters, being defined as the standard ration of rice for a soldier for a year).
** And ran headlong into the economic crisis, because advances in agriculture and increased wealth (and thus bargaining power) of the city merchants led to the collapse of the rice prices. Which meant that the country-based daimyos and the samurai class, who were traditionally paid in rice, became practically penniless.
** Japan also used gold coins known as ryô that the Imperial authorities tried to peg to the value of a koku of rice, but, as with many commodity currencies the relative values of gold and rice fluctuated wildly over time.

* Real life Mayans and Aztecs used cocoa beans as currency. Therefore, the rich could afford drinks like xocolātl (from which we get the word Chocolate) more often.
** And just to prove that people have always been the same, archaeologists have found forged cocoa beans, made from (among other things) clay.
* Cigarettes are a common form of currency in prisons.
** And in the late 1940's occupied Berlin.
** In some prisons where tobacco is banned or hard to acquire, prisoners use postage stamps instead, since they're not only legal but are small, easy to carry, and have a small round price.
** Now that most prisons have banned tobacco, cigarettes have become too valuable to be of practical use. Items from the commissary, usually packaged ramen noodles or canned fish, have replaced them.

* ''{{Videogame/Eldritch}}'': A {{Roguelike}} "Artifacts" can be used as currency in the stores or as [[CastFromMoney fuel for your magic spells]].

** And this coinage is backed by Atium, an ultra-rare metal that gives Mistborn the ability to [[CombatClairvoyance see a short distance into the future]]. While having your economy be dependent on a substance that gets regularly used up may seem like a bad idea, Atium seems to be renewable, and the people who own the mine are ''very'' rich, even after the [[GodEmperor Lord Ruler]] takes his cut.

* ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'': [[{{Nanomachines}} Nanite]] packs are a basic exchange unit. The vending machines you buy from take the nanites you carry and literally use them as raw material to build the product you're asking for. And "selling" items is simply the machines breaking them down into nanites and giving them back to you.

* In the 1998 Russian movie ''Checkpoint'', 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.