A heavy price

摘要

I research some of the world's most intriguing coins. For centuries, the dominant currency on the island of Yap came in the form of large disks of limestone called rai. The Yapese exchanged them for key social transactions, like marriages and ransoms. But while stone money reigned on Yap, it mainly came from quarries on islands five to eight days away by boat in Palau. So that's where i went to study its origins.