Yap Stone Money (Rai)
Large circular discs of quarried calcite used as currency on the island of Yap, some measuring several metres across and weighing many tonnes, each with a central hole for carrying on a pole. The rai were quarried on Palau and sailed back to Yap by raft and canoe, and their value was fixed not by size alone but by the difficulty of the voyage and the lives lost in obtaining them — a stone that sank on the way was still counted as wealth because ownership was remembered. Since the discs were too heavy to move, ownership was recorded in memory and passed on orally at marriages, land deals and de