There is an island in the Pacific called Yap that uses circular stones as currency. The stones are too large to move so the ownership of the stones is passed by word of mouth to transact business http://ow.ly/LxJV30mpIqe pic.twitter.com/XhwqSVBkiH
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How people transported monies in ancient days tended to inadvertently serve as a status symbol, or (guessing here) heuristic to distinguish between various tribes by their transportation techniques. Wealth as status symbols seemed to emerge on accident, like status of visa-black.
Transport costs, on top of collecting or mining costs, were commonly a big part of unforgeable costliness, i.e. the securely limited supply curve. Another example is the Yurok, who used seashells that originated over two thousand kilometers up the coast: https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2017/02/conflict-and-collectibles-among-yurok_87.html …
