What kind of materials have been used for coinage over time????

FC57Coins

Of course we all know metal, and there have been coins made out of plastic. Anyone know if any other substances have been used to make coins???

Smittys

Clams...opps that was the Flintstones

MadMonk

Wompum (sp?) little beads made from clam shells.

mgoodm3

Marshmallows, a failed experiment.

Prethen

You name it, it's probably been done. Probably even done with dung at one time.

DNADave

stones, salt, plastic,

longtimecollector

I recall some ceramic types from Europe

Some Yap stone wheels

ksteelheader

Buckskins. Where the term "buck" came into the monetary language!

tmot99

wood, as in wooden nickels.

FC57Coins

Yeah - beaver pelts were used as a means of exchange, though I don't know if I'd call it a coin

cladking

Ceramic, glass, paper. There are more.

cladking

Clay.

cladking

There are tokens and medals made of bakelite, rubber, celluloid, cork and more.

FC57Coins

Huh - that's interesting - thanks Cladking!

Weiss

Interesting question. But in my 'umble opinion, vehicles of exchange are not genuinely "coins" or "money" unless you can exchange them freely for many (if not all) goods and services.

For illustration: Tokens are generally exchangeable for one specific item. An arcade game, a cake of soap, a romp with a lady at the bunny ranch. They look like coins, and the construct of a non-thing being exchanged for a thing is there, but it's limited to just that one thing.

Real coins (money), to me at least, transcend the one-thing exchange rate because they are exchangeable for anything. Tokens and coins can look the same, feel the same, be made in the same way out of the same material. But genuine coins are virtually infinite in their ability for exchange. That is what makes coins so fascinating to me. It's almost a form of magic. Conversely, that's what makes stamps so dull to me. While coins are exchangeable for almost anything and can be used in almost any transaction, stamps are exchangeable for one and only one thing. There is no magic there.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack.

Wekar

Chocolate! I'll bet everyone has seen (& eaten) some of those.

from SmallDollars.com:
Chocolate Sacagawea Dollars: Now here's something that's out on the fringe. However, due to their inclusion in the First Strike Ceremonies, they are included here. At the Sacagawea Dollar first strike ceremonies on November 18, 1999, small mesh bags with five chocolate Sacagawea Dollars were handed out. These chocolate dollars were wrapped in gold colored foil.

Conder101

Sometimes tokens are widely exchangeable for anything, not just a specific thing. Examples are Conder tokens, German Notgeld tokens, Civil War tokens. They changed hands just as regular coins did.

Another item they have been made from is coal