Unusual items have been used as currency in different countries around the world for years.
While some of these alternate currencies were used temporarily, some of them are still in use to date.
Kenyans.co.ke compiled five items that were used as currency in different nations around the world and they are as following;
Bottle Caps
In 2005, a brewery in Cameroon started a competition allowing buyers to win prizes placed under beer caps.
Other beer companies in the country followed suit and prizes ranging from mobile phones, luxury cars to money started appearing in almost every bottle cap.
As the competition grew, Cameroon citizens started using the bottle caps to pay for different things including cab rides.
Beer
In ancient Egypt, beer was used to pay slaves, tradesmen, priests and public officials.
In the late 1980s, Egyptians were forced to use beer as a currency when inflation hit the country.
Government workers used their coupons for foreign beer which they then resold on the market.
Salt
The word salary is derived from the Latin word salarium meaning salt money.
The word came into use at a time when Romans paid soldiers, officers and civil administrators using an allowance of salt.
Salarium later came to be a term for military pay after salt seized to be used as a currency.
Cocoa beans
One of the oldest civilizations on the American continent, the Maya, used cocoa beans as a barter currency to exchange for food or clothes.
Examples of the purchasing value of cocoa for varying goods were as included; trading one good turkey hen for 100 cocoa beans, one turkey egg for three cocoa beans, one fully ripe avocado for one cocoa bean or one large tomato for one cocoa bean.
[caption caption="File image of batter trade in Africa"]
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Electronic Cards
Over time, currency has evolved from barter trade, coins, paper money to electronic currency in the form of debit and credit cards.
Co-operative Bank has made this possible by introducing different visa cards to meet all their clients’ needs.
You can use different Co-op bank Visa Cards to pay for your goods and services at No Extra Cost.
The Co-op Corporate prepaid Visa Card also help organizations manage spend in the organization with employees who need periderms.
Remember, you do not have to struggle with your bunch of cash anymore. Just get your Co-op Visa card and make payments conveniently at No Extra Cost.
[caption caption="Co-op bank Visa Card"]
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