History Main / GlobalCurrencyException

** The longest-lived example is the Hermit, who only accepts worthless trinkets, gewgaws and knick-knacks as currency. He would not accept "valuable" trinkets, which nobody really want, but can be converted to GlobalCurrency anyway.

* ''VideoGame/{{Elona}}'' has Small Medals, of which there is a limited supply hidden in towns. You can find more by finding buried treasure and clearing random dungeons. The medals can be redeemed at Miral and Garok's workshop for rare items such as Potions of Cure Corruption, [[CommonplaceRare bottles of water]], and the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Diablo]].

** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', you can find "Pre-War Money" in various locales which can't be spent outright but still carries its own inherent value and can be traded for the local currency of bottle caps or bartered as part of the value for other items. How much it's actually worth depends on your own bartering skill, of course.

*** Played straight in the ''Dead Money'' add-on. Taking place in a casino that was sealed just before the Great War, you still have all your caps but none of the holographic vendors will accept them, though you can barter for goods using Pre-War money, loot, and VendorTrash. Casino chips are also used as currency for the table games and vending machines (the vending machines actually breaking down the chips to do some molecular rearranging to create items), and collecting enough of them will ensure a large sum of them is regularly deposited for you back in the Wasteland after completing the DLC. Which is great, because there's a conveniently placed vending machine that can be used to buy piles of stimpacks and weapon repair kits, among other useful stuff.

Because many games have MoneyForNothing economies, where the GlobalCurrency becomes almost worthless halfway into the game, many {{RPG}}s also include an area where your regular money just doesn't work. It may be a [[MinigameZone gaming center]] that runs on tokens, an [[HiddenElfVillage insular country]] that doesn't accept standard currency, or a [[MonsterTown city inhabited by monsters]] - but one way or another, your money is no good here. Sometimes there's a way to convert your normal money into this alternate currency (usually at an obscenely bad ratio), but often there's nothing for it but to complete {{sidequest}}s and minigames.

** Its sibling game, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', is starting down this path as well.

** ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Red and Blue]]'' had this in the Slots minigame, where you could only get certain Pokémon by turning in a large number of tokens -- which could be purchased at a ridiculous price (50 coins for 1000 yen), or won at slot machines. The tradition continued in the later games in the series, although you couldn't get Pokémon from them.
** Later games in the series included Battle Facilities (Tower, Frontier, Subway, Maison, Royal Dome, Tree) which used Battle Points (BP) to buy items rather than regular money. The same goes for the [=PokéCoupons=] in the console spinoffs.

* Mario:

* ''WorldOfWarcraft''

* Unlike other ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games, coins in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' are only used to pay for stuff at shops. Gold coin shops are present in every kingdom and accept [[GlobalCurrency gold coins]] from all over the world but purple coin shops only accept purple coins that were collected in that kingdom (each kingdom's purple coinage is shaped uniquely to its locale, making them specific to that kingdom).

* In ''VideoGame/LittleBigAdventure 2'', once the player reaches Zeelich, they will find out all the money acquired on Twinsen ("Kashes") is worthless, since the Zeelichians use their own coin ("Zlitos"). Afterwards, the player will encounter a ferryman who will only accept ''gems'' as currency.

[[folder:Adventure]]

* ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons]]'' has Subrosia, which uses ore rather than rupees. Fortunately, ore can be acquired in most of the same ways rupees can.
* '' VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' has bugs - which are needed to upgrade potions, and treasures - which are needed to upgrade equipment.

** Later games in the series included Battle Facilities (Tower, Frontier, Subway, Maison, Royale Dome, Tree) which used Battle Points (BP) to buy items rather than regular money. The same goes for the [=PokéCoupons=] in the console spinoffs.

** Later games in the series included Battle Tower (or, in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Emerald]]'' version, Battle Frontier) areas which used Battle Points (BP) to buy items rather than regular money. The same goes for the [=PokéCoupons=] in the console spinoffs.
** ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Platinum]]'', ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'' have a currency only used ''during'' a Battle Frontier challenge: Castle Points (CP) for the Battle Castle. The currency rolls over between challenges but is emptied following a loss. Aside from assisting in the completion of challenges in the Castle, which reward BP, the Castle Points aren't used anywhere else.
** Some NPC characters also ask for Heart Scales to teach your Pokémon moves they knew in the past, but forgot. In [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue FireRed LeafGreen]], because Heart Scales and the Pokémon that carries them do not appear[[note]]There is one heart scale in [=FireRed=] and [=LeafGreen=]. You need to use the Itemfinder outside of one of the caves with the Unown on Seven Island. It's worthless.[[/note]], but these types of Move Tutors do in the [[BonusDungeon Sevii Islands]], they ask for Mushrooms instead.

** ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2002]]'' had this too, where Gold Bolts were needed to buy upgrades for some weapons along with regular currency.

* In ''LittleBigAdventure 2'', once the player reaches Zeelich, they will find out all the money acquired on Twinsen ("Kashes") is worthless, since the Zeelichians use their own coin ("Zlitos"). Afterwards, the player will encounter a ferryman who will only accept ''gems'' as currency.

* ''{{Neopets}}'': You need to use Dubloons instead of Neopoints on Krawk Island.

** ''New Leaf'' has two examples: items on Tortimer Island can only be bought with medals (earned by playing {{minigame}}s on the island) and fortune cookies can only be bought using [=3DS=] Play Coins (earned by accumulating steps on the pedometer). A November 2016 update introduces a new area (the campground) that accepts MEOW coupons ([[FunWithAcronyms Mutual Exchange Of Wealth]]) which are dispensed by a CAT Machine (Coupon Allocation Terminal) upon doing certain tasks in your town.

** ''New Leaf'' has two examples: items on Tortimer Island can only be bought with medals (earned by playing {{minigame}}s on the island) and fortune cookies can only be bought using [=3DS=] Play Coins (earned by accumulating steps on the pedometer).

[[folder:Single Player Role-Playing-Game]]
* ''AtelierIris'' features a village of rabbit and bear monsters where your Cole currency is not accepted. The same goes for a merchant in the Land of Mana.

* ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER 3}}'' has this in the beginning in a more literal, but not mean-spirited sense. The villagers do not have a monetary system and when Fassad offers them money, they, at first, refuse it because they don't believe in charging anyone for anything.
* In ''{{Persona 3}}'', the proprietor of the Shinshoudo Antiques shop only takes gemstones that are [[RandomlyDrops dropped by certain Shadows in combat]] for payment. Since she provides items that boost your Persona's power in exchange, it can be assumed that she somehow "harvests" some sort of benefit from them to make the power-ups. She also sells other items that may be beneficial in combat or in leveling up your [[RelationshipValues Social Links]] as well.

* Casinos in ''DragonQuest'' games tend to run on tokens. They can be bought using the regular currency, but tend to be quite expensive. This is so that to purchase the often quite powerful weapons and armor available as casino prizes, you have to first actually win at the casino games. And the more money you're likely to have at the point that you reach the casino, the more expensive the tokens tend to be. A particularly egregious example of this in Chapter 3 of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'', where by the end of the chapter Torneko can gather truly vast amounts of gold from his shop with minimal effort, gold that [[BagOfSpilling cannot be carried forward into later chapters]]. Savvy players will note that casino tokens did carry over from Chapter 2 and convert the excess gold into tokens, but will find that the exchange rate is 20 times worse than it was in the previous chapter.

* In the DiscworldMUD, different cities of the world use different currencies, and most cities feature at least one money-changer (who charges exorbitant fees). Some enterprising (and very wealthy) characters run their own money-changing services on the side.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'', Black Market upgrades that increase how much ammo you can hold as well as inventory space can only be purchased using Eridium, which can be found everywhere. In the words of the Black Market vendor, "Cash is for clowns!".