On an island in Micronesia you will find massive stone structures with an interesting purpose. The stone used for these structures is mined from a nearby island. These structures can weigh up to 4 tons and are used as currency on Yap. The size of the Fei or Rai seems counterintuitive but it points out a very interesting observation in advanced economic systems today. 

When you have a coin that big you run into the issue of transferring funds. In the event you have to spend it, which historically has been for major purchases like buying a captured warrior, it is extremely difficult to move. So the people of Yap do not move them. Instead they all just agree, that is it. When transferring a fei you simply just agree that this large stone now belongs to another person. Their system is based solely on faith that this huge stone means something. One story told to back this up is when they were bringing back a fresh fei and a storm hit the crew. The waves tossed the stone over the boat and into the ocean, never to be seen again. You would think that this would render the coin useless and when the crew returned they would be scolded. But no, when the crew returned to the island they were told that it was fine. Even under the ocean where no one can see it the coin still held value.

Many people compare this to advanced economic systems, in this digital world when we transfer money all we see are numbers on a screen. Our economy, like Yaps, is based on faith that our symbols hold value. Confidence in our systems is the only thing that keeps them up and floating. Brazil went through economic failure after economic failure until a system people referred to as “fake money” came in and saved the day. It instilled faith into the people by convincing them that their money was not being affected by inflation. This crazy plan worked because it made the people of Brazil believe that their economy was stable. 

We tend to think that since we are a big technologically advanced country our systems reflect that. When it’s down to brass tacks our systems are still abstract and aren’t as advanced as we think they are. There are so many similarities between fei and our money that we overlook in order to preserve some sort of superiority over other societies. All economic systems require that the people believe in them no matter how much we try to cover it up with science and ignoring the basic need to have strong faith in your money takes away from celebrating the success of our country. 

The people of Yap take massive amounts of disrespect when a fei is vandalized. Today in our society we see drawings, phone numbers, notes and even inappropriate doodles on presidents. Where is our pride? We don’t hold our money to any amount of true value. The people of Yap would freak out if they saw what we did to our money. 

We try to remain above but in that we take away our right to be prideful in the systems we have. Which is extremely counterintuitive, I feel like we disrespect our money but then try to say how advanced we are compared to other societies. Instead of appreciating the people of Yap’s dedication to their currency we talk about how we are more advanced than them. Their system is just as valid as our.