Weird world currency – IOTW Report

Weird world currency

chicken nugget in wallet

Mining.com: The rise of alternative payment methods like Bitcoin, contactless credit cards and Apple Pay has reduced our everyday reliance on cold, hard cash.

With that in mind, we took a look at some of the weird and wonderful things that have been used as alternatives to money around the world, some of which are still in use today.

Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano, ’The Prince of Parmesans’)

Where: Emilia Romagna, Northern Italy
When: 1953 – today
Value: $300 per wheel
parmagian cheese

Parmigiano-Reggiano is a type of Parmesan cheese that takes two years to mature and in the meantime local dairy farmers can find themselves with little or no cash flow. Italian Bank Banco Emiliano accepts the cheese as collateral for a personal loan, giving farmers the cash injection they need until they can sell their wares.

If farmers default on the loan the bank sells the cheese, which is valued at $300 per wheel. The Bank’s vault, containing $187 million worth of cheese, has been hit by would be cheese thieves three times, most recently in 2009.

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13 Comments on Weird world currency

  1. Vegetable oil (Weimar Germany)

    Too bad phone minutes are not used as alternative currency in the U.S. Despite having the smallest, cheapest plan my carrier offers, I routinely roll over about half my minutes, which then expire after a year.

    A better idea would be my carrier letting me custom-design my plan based on my needs, but that would constitute personal service.

  2. when I was in college back in the 90s I had a book of stamps left over at the end of the year but no money. So I sold my stamps at face value to the campus post office for gas money to get back home.

  3. My Brother once told my Mother that if “mosquitoes and cat shit” were worth anything, she’d be the richest woman on Earth.

    Sounded kind of negative, but it was funny as Hell.

    izlamo delenda est …

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