History Main / LivingCurrency

** Coiny from ''WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland'', not to be confused with the similarly named Coin in both ''WebAnimation/OpenSourceObjects'' and ''WebAnimation/VillageOfObjects''

* In ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'', wads of bank notes are anthropomorphized.

* The main character of Advertising/{{Cryptoland}} is Connie, a coin.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': Mr. Krabs trades his soul to The Flying Dutchman for the ability to talk to money. The talking currency appears as this.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Hol}}'': The currency is wastems, helpless little creatures that are used directly as money (as opposed to being bartered like livestock). In addition to the obvious impracticality of the system, the harmless wastem is nearly indistinguishable from the lethal wastit.

[[caption-width-right:200:''"Hey, over here! Some money over here!"'']]

* One monster of the week in ''Anime/DigimonXrosWarsTheYoungHuntersLeapingThroughTime'' is Ganemon, a living ten-yen coin that [[EmotionEater feeds on the greed carried by human currency]]. He grows larger and his appearance changes to resemble more valuable metals the more he feeds on. He also has a massive swarm of Zenimon (five-yen) and [=KoZenimon=] (one-yen) minions in [[{{Hammerspace}} his briefcase]].

* There are literal examples in Object Shows which are made blatant with their [[ADogNamedDog self-explanatory names]]. This includes...

* There are literal examples in Object Shows which are made blatant with their [[ADogANamedDog self-explanatory names]]. This includes...

* ''VideoGame/{{Vangers}}'': Beebs, harmless insects that spawn around wherever the player drives, are the setting's currency. They can be run over, which adds to player's purse. Certain tasks require the player to gather a number of "fresh" beebs this way.

[[quoteright:300:[[VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cash_4.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"Hey, over here! Some money over here!"'']]

!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:ComicBooks]]

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': In the villages of Lancre, where hard currency is a rarity, commerce is more likely to be negotiated in chickens than in coins.
** While not ''technically'' currency (as no one directly spends them), ''{{Literature/Making Money}}'' has Ankh-Morpork switch over from the Gold Standard to the ''Golem'' Standard; the value of money is guaranteed by being worth an equivalent amount of labor from the recently unearthed army of golems.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In ''ComicStrip/{{BC}}'', the cavemen use live clams as currency.
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment''" Tobias spends some time in prison to research for a role. George Sr trades him to White Power Bill for a pack of cigarettes.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': Mr. Krabs trades his soul to The Flying Dutchman for the ability to talk to money. The talking currency appears as this.

[[folder:RealLife]]

* ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'': The official currency is the Echo, but there are a wide variety of items used for barter that can also be bought and sold at the Echo Bazaar, including many varieties of soul. [[TheGrimReaper The Boatman]] will also accept [[ButtMonkey Lucky Weasels]] and Sulky Bats in exchange for bringing the player back to the world of the living. A less obvious example is the Deep Amber used by the Rubbery Men, which is "alive" in the sense that [[spoiler: they use it to collect life essence for their flesh-transforming experiments]]. And while you're in Polythreme, a land where ''everything'' is alive, ''all'' currency counts as "living".

currency!"

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cash_4.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Hey, over here! Some money over here!"'']]

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

* In GordonRDickson's ''Literature/ChildeCycle'', the interstellar currency is largely based on skilled professionals. If a planet needs someone or something, they hire out a specialist in exchange.
* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': On some planets ''Elderly relatives'' are used as currency.

[[AC:NewspaperComics]]

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]
* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', demons use kittens when playing poker.
* In ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'', Tobias spends some time in prison to research for a role. George Sr trades him to White Power Bill for a pack of cigarettes.

[[AC: TabletopGames]]
* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', fiends use souls, in the form of lower fiends, as currency.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'', the Phelan tribes use cumalai, DomesticatedDinosaurs that are used like cattle, as a general measurement of value. For instance, an "exotic" slave from the kingdom of Calebria would cost two cumalai.
* The currency in ''TabletopGame/{{Hol}}'' is wastems, helpless little creatures that are used directly as money (as opposed to being bartered like livestock). In addition to the obvious impracticality of the system, the harmless wastem is nearly indistinguishable from the lethal wastit.

[[AC:VideoGames]]

* Souls are the standard currency in ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'' and its spiritual successor ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' since they are a source of great power.
* Vulgrim from ''VideoGame/{{Darksiders}}'' trades upgrades and items in exchange for souls.

* The official currency of ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' is the Echo, but there are a wide variety of items used for barter that can also be bought and sold at the Echo Bazaar, including many varieties of soul. [[TheGrimReaper The Boatman]] will also accept [[ButtMonkey Lucky Weasels]] and Sulky Bats in exchange for bringing the player back to the world of the living. A less obvious example is the Deep Amber used by the Rubbery Men, which is "alive" in the sense that [[spoiler: they use it to collect life essence for their flesh-transforming experiments]]. And while you're in Polythreme, a land where ''everything'' is alive, ''all'' currency counts as "living."

* ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'': The [[RockMonster TzHaar]] forge the [[FreakyFuneralForms bodies of their dead]] into obsidian coins, which are holy to them. They abandon the practice when they learn the AwfulTruth that this treatment leaves the dead [[AndIMustScream aware and in torment]].

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* On an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Milhouse cries to Chief Wiggum that he can't go to juvenile hall because "they'll pass me around like currency!"

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' episode "Two Bumble Bees and a Wasp", Beast Boy starts his own currency system by using live bees/wasps as money.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* Cows, chickens, and other livestock were often used in the Middle Ages when barter systems were more common.

Everyone knows that living things can be exchanged for other goods or currency, but sometimes they are traded so regularly they can be (and sometimes are) considered currency themselves. In this case, something sufficiently close to alive counts too, for instance: a completely autonomous ClockworkCreature. A subtrope to WeirdCurrency, if the organism is edible or produces some other useful commodity may be PracticalCurrency.