Rai Stones

Started by Hitesh, February 19, 2015, 05:40:05 PM

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Hitesh

Just something interesting I found surfing the internet!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rai_stones
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Quant.Geek

#1
I always wanted this when I was a kid ever since I read about these in the "Guinness Book of World Records".  There are smaller ones that are more approachable to collectors if you can find one.  Rarely comes up for purchase though.  This one is from the ANS collection and weights 25lbs...



The following one is currently for auction, if you can spare $18,000+:



http://www.greatcollections.com/Coin/189804/Yap-Rai-Stone--Rare-Museum-Piece
A gallery of my coins can been seen at FORVM Ancient Coins

Figleaf

The ultimate fiduciary currency.

Perhaps collecting coins has made me into a cynic. I immediately started wondering how difficult it would be to fake that and why the Chinese aren't already producing them in plastic (shipping not included).

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

Quant.Geek

Fortunately, all known rai stones have been accounted for and with a long provenance.  Since they don't make these anymore (I believe the last one was in the 30s), you should be OK in regards to finding legitimate ones.  Unfortunately, they are quite expensive, even for the small, tiny ones.  They typically reach the $5,000 to $6,000 range and the large ones have gone up to $25,000 and those are the ones you can hold with a slight chance of a hernia.  The extremely large ones are stationary and used to promote their tourism as it is quite popular with tourists...
A gallery of my coins can been seen at FORVM Ancient Coins

Hitesh

I was actually surprised see this. Never even thought something like this might actually exist. But I guess this is only feasible for places with low population.
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Quant.Geek

Quote from: hitesh on February 20, 2015, 03:26:00 PM
I guess this is only feasible for places with low population.

In regards to what?  Size?  Remember, the largest stones were meant to be stationary and hence it doesn't matter.  The smaller stones were actually carried around and used.  So, population has nothing to do with it.  It could have been metal or other precious "commodity" in a large population setting.  To make things even more interesting, the rai was NOT native to the island.  It was quarried elsewhere and brought over to the island in canoes!  Hence the reason for the high status they played.  It required A LOT of work and work is NOT cheap regardless of the society you are in...
A gallery of my coins can been seen at FORVM Ancient Coins

Hitesh

Thank you for clarifying that.

In reference to your canoes remark this paragraph from Wikipedia seems particularly apt -

"The names of previous owners are passed down to the new one. In one instance, a large rai being transported by canoe and outrigger was accidentally dropped and sank to the sea floor. Although it was never seen again, everyone agreed that the rai must still be there, so it continued to be transacted as genuine currency."
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