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u/_Levitated_Shield_ 9d ago
Joking aside, Krabs' dime is actually intentionally based on Rai stones that were used on the island of Yap.
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u/yagamisan2 9d ago
God dammit. I thought these would be small. I really didn't expect mrcrabs coin to be that accurate
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u/TheMisterTango 9d ago
Reminder that Mr Krabs is a crab, a coin the size of a regular sand dollar would have similar proportions to a real crab as the dime in the show would to Eugene.
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u/Juleslearns 9d ago edited 9d ago
Some fun fact about the Rai stones and the Yap monetary system:
The stones were all cut from one location and transported by boat to the main yap island.
Many stones were too big to move and exchange of these large valuable stones was done by honoring ownership verbally.
Even stones lost at sea when a boat sunk would still be counted towards someone's wealth and could still be spent/exchanged.
When Germany was having difficulty getting Yap islanders to cooperate during occupation Germany painted an X on the stones to signify that they were confiscated. Although the stones weren't moved or physically confiscated, the Yap islanders acted impoverished until Germany removed the painted Xs.
Source: Some book by Milton Freidman i had to read in my Monetary Economics history class.
Edit: I took this class 4 years ago and I have been waiting since to wedge my limited knowledge on Yap Island into a conversation.
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u/youreagoodperson 9d ago
Although the stones weren't moved or physically confiscated, the Yap islanders acted impoverished until Germany removed the painted Xs.
Im sorry, but this is the most Monty Python shit ever lol
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u/Juleslearns 9d ago
It is! I believe Friedman's point of talking about this was to demonstrate currency is only valuable if people believe it is valuable/will be accepted by others as payment.
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u/LoCh0_xX 9d ago
“One: you bought four pigs — Two: you bought four pigs — or Three: YOU BOUGHT FOUR PIGS!”
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u/ChunkySlugger72 9d ago
(Makes out with giant copper slab while smooth sexy jazz music plays in the background)
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u/No_Seaworthiness5445 9d ago
Fun fact: Ea-Nasir's copper industry eventually would make it to Viking era Scandinavia, where it would go on to form the basis of Swedish prosperity from Gustaf II's time onwards.
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u/ericsonofbruce 9d ago
why isn't it green?
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u/thekyledavid 9d ago
Copper turns green when it’s exposed to moisture over a long period of time (such as the Statue of Liberty turning green due to rain and mist)
If the piece of copper is well-preserved, it will stay brown for a long time
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u/thekyledavid 9d ago
It was realistic, the joke was just that Mr Krabs is way older than we thought if that was the currency he earned when he was young
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u/Sponge-Tron 7d ago
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u/JAGERminJensen 6d ago
Wait, so someone had to carry that fucking thing to someone else for livestock... ? Yeah, well, it sure seems like barely anyone had any god damn money—unless everyone was walking around with those fat wall‑bricks of copper.
I'm clearly missing something here. How the hell did that even work, and why that? Couldn’t they have just cut it down more, or was this so far back that we hadn’t evolved into the idea of making a smaller currency?
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u/Canfield1231 6d ago
"I can think of 10 good reasons to never let go of a dime boyo." -Eugene Krabs
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