History Main / GlobalCurrencyException

*** Played straight in the ''Dead Money'' add-on. You can't take any caps with you, and since it takes place in a casino that was sealed just before the Great War, the holographic vendors wouldn't accept caps anyway, 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 Mojave Wasteland after completing the DLC. Which is great, because there's a conveniently placed vending machine that can be used to buy piles of stimpaks and weapon repair kits, among other useful stuff.

** The Hippy/Frat Boy War only takes dimes (dime bags, get it?) and quarters (as in the drinking game) respectively for their shops (these are also untradeable between players, and are not carried over into a new [[NewGamePlus ascension]], though the stores hold valuable VendorTrash to enable conversion into the GlobalCurrency).

** An event shared by three of the four seasons consists of a day on which a shop that only accepts Dark Matter as payment opens in the player's town. On those days, Dark Matter can be found while cutting trees and mining, while Dark Matter is only a possible result of catching bugs in the Dust Carverns the rest of the year.

* A late-game shop in ''VideoGame/WildArms4'' uses your party members' ''levels'' to [[ItemCrafting create]] rare items, including [[InfinityPlusOneSword Sheriff Stars]].

* One NPC in ''VideoGame/{{Dubloon}}'' is eager to sell you his goods, except he only accepts Farquaads. After beating the final boss and returning you will find an exchange service which will eagerly give you the necessary 1 million Farquaads... [[RidiculousExchangeRates for 1 dubloon]]. The game doesn't even ask for confirmation.

* ''VideoGame/{{Ryzom}}'' has the Civilization and Faction vendors, who sell some cool stuff... but you earn points to pay them with by doing delivery quests and [=PvP=], respectively.

* In Maxis' ''VideoGame/SimAnt'', you can use the same cheat code that the other games in the series use to give yourself $10,000... but since you're an ant, you can't spend it on anything.

Because many games have MoneyForNothing economies, many {{RPG}}s include an area where the GlobalCurrency you've been using all game 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.

* Some rare Manillo merchants (fish people) in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'' and ''[[VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV IV]]'' ask for fish you caught in the FishingMinigame instead of Zenny in exchange for very rare items and weapons. The latter game also has a points system that you accumulate through this trade system, which has even more rare items (including RareCandy!).

* Some rare Manillo merchants (fish people) in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'' and ''[[VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV IV]]'' ask for fish you caught in the FishingMinigame instead of Zenny in exchange for very rare items and weapons.

* ''VideoGame/StarControlII'' has two different races that engage in this: The Melnorme accept Credits which they give in exchange for biological information and the locations of Rainbow Worlds, and the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Druuge]] accept certain Plot Coupons -- and crew.

** It's perfectly possible that they, being small business owners, prefer to take pearls, that are valuable in and of themselves, rather than the credits of the current government, which will be worthless if the Domz win the war. The vending machines are probably a concession of some sort, and run by a larger corporation.

*** There are different currencies for the NCR and Caesar's Legion, but you can still trade in caps with both of them. Later, you'll find that the Brotherhood blew up some of the NCR's gold deposits, crashing the NCR dollar's value and making the Hub merchants re-create the cap.

[[folder:Role-Playing-Game]]

** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'':

*** Also there's this quest in Broken Hills where you help a midget find a treasure. What's the treasure? Bottlecaps from the previous game, which are worthless nowadays.
** ''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, with the max typically being ten caps each.

*** 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.

[[folder:Multiplayer Role-Playing-Game]]

** ''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 a third alternate currency called MEOW coupons ([[FunWithAcronyms Mutual Exchange Of Wealth]]) which are dispensed by a CAT Machine (Coupon Allocation Terminal) upon doing certain tasks in your town.

** ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]]'': When everyone heads off to the Beanbean Kingdom, Toadsworth gives you 100 coins. However, when the brothers reach Stardust Fields, a local monster informs them that the exchange rate means they only have the equivalent of 10 beanbean coins. This Mushroom-to-Beanbean coin conversion only comes up once more: a certain character bets you 99,999,999,999,999 Mushroom Coins he'll win at something only for it to be revealed that Beanbean Coins are worth 1,010,101,010 times as much as Mushroom Coins, meaning you only get 99 coins for winning, being very blatantly higher than before.

** ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]]'': When everyone heads off to the Beanbean Kingdom, Toadsworth gives you 100 coins. However, when the brothers reach Stardust Fields, a local monster informs them that the exchange rate means they only have the equivalent of 10 beanbean coins. This Mushroom-to-Beanbean coin conversion only comes up once more: a certain character bets you 99,999,999 Mushroom Coins he'll win at something only to reveal that Beanbean Coins are worth 1,010,101 times as much as Mushroom Coins, meaning you only get 99 coins for winning.
*** Which either means at least one of the two people was just screwing with the bros, or the Mushroom Kingdom economy tanked ridiculously hard without Peach there.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' has Kilton's shop, Fang and Bone, where you must exchange monster parts for a unique currency called "mon" that can only be spent there.

** Poké Miles from ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' and ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]]'', earned by online interaction (internet, local wireless, infrared) and/or the Pokémon Bank.

Because many games have MoneyForNothing economies, many {{RPG}}s 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.

* ''VideoGame/ChampionsOnline'' has, in addition to [[GlobalCurrency Resources]], Snakebucks (dropped from mobs in the Snake Gulch amusement park, used in the gift shop), Acclaim (gained in PvP, used to buy PvP items and rewards, mostly Luchador costume items), UNITY and Nemesis Tokens (gained by completing UNITY and Nemesis missions, respectively, used for very high level, exorbiantly priced rewards) and a few others.

* ''VideoGame/{{Ryzom}}'' has the Civilization and Faction vendors, who sell some cool stuff... but you earn points to pay them with by doing delivery quests and pvp, respectively.

* The Prehistoric era of ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' uses a barter system of animal hides and horns, as you might expect from primitive cavemen. However, there is still an item shop that accepts regular currency even in that era; amusingly, the shopkeeper asks "Trade your shiny stone?!?" when you talk to him (he doesn't know what gold is, apparently, he just likes the shiny). The AfterTheEnd portion features features two shops, both of which give the player a bit of a jolt by asking "You call this stuff money?". This being After the End, however, they then accept your currency because there's nobody else to sell ''to''.
** Similarly, in the Millenium Fair, you can earn special Silver Points that can only be spent within the fair.

*** Averted to the point of LampshadeHanging in the ''Old World Blues'' and ''Lonesome Road'' add-ons. It is handwaved in ''Old World Blues'' as the scientist who created the only store in the DLC having observed post-nuclear society and noticing bottlecaps were the preferred currency. It is briefly handwaved in a document found in ''Lonesome Road'' that states that the automated commissary terminals accept bottlecaps because they are coincidentally shaped just like the "counterfeit-proof" pay scrip the military was using at the time. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Though this doesn't explain why the Commissary has thousands upon thousands of them in reserve]] (possibly [[WildMassGuessing the exploit was just that popular amongst the soldiers before the commissary terminals were locked down]]).

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