Cultural Tokens

Low-denomination exchange pieces that primitive peoples still use, given their lack of access to minting.

Nature

Cultural Tokens are something primitive peoples still use, given their lack of access to minting. They serve mainly in subsistence economies, where they are locally sustained. They are non-metallic, of negligible intrinsic value, and dependent on habitual acceptance. They form the subsistence liquidity layer, enabling food purchase, day labor exchange, and local trade.

They are usually selected for their durability, and where durability is not possible, for ease of replacement through an issuing authority.

They do not scale, because of their bulk. Breakage impairs their value, acceptance is locally bounded, and supply is constrained and slow to replenish. In bulk trade they may be weighed to approximate quantity. Large-value transactions in tokens are inefficient, conspicuous, and potentially dangerous.

Southron Tiles

The best-known Cultural Token is the Southron Tile, from metal-poor regions such as Upland Sudland. Tiles are kiln-fired in low denominations, red and blue-green, and are abundant in aggregate but unevenly distributed locally.