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ODD AND CURIOUS:STONE MONEY IN YAP

By Peter E Patascil, PHD, R5857, Barrigada, Guam

Yap is located 400 miles southwest of Guam and 250 miles northwest of Palau (where most of the pieces of stone money were quarried and made). Stone money called rai by the Yapese, was retrieved from both Palau and Guam and is made from argonite which is not found on Yap.

Prior to the 1860’s, a chief would send a group of men to Palau to quarry stone money with stone axes. The stone money pieces with the best workmanship were those that were thicker at the center hole and sloped towards the rim. The gi, a shell adze, was used to make the center hole in the early stones, which were then drilled with a reef stone. Outrigger canoes and rafts were used for the trip to Palau and to transport the rai back to Yap. Although the Yapese were experienced navigators and sailors, each trip involved the risk of life. The Yapese drifted the stone pieces on large bamboo rafts out to sea where they were made fast to canoes for towing to Yap. When the canoes and rafts reached their destination, the large pieces were delivered to a specific location, usually the failu (men’s clubhouse).

Foreign vessels commenced transporting stone money between Palau and Yap in the 1860s. In 1871, Captain David O’Keefe, a seafarer from Savannah, Georgia, made arrangements with a chief to transport stone money from Palau to Yap in exchange for copra and trepang (large sea cucumbers). This arrangement enabled the Yapese to acquire stone money with much less risk of life or loss of rai. Captain O’Keefe continued to ply his trade and transported the majority of the stone pieces between 1871 and 1901 from both Palau and Guam to Yap. He revolutionized the quarrying and manufacture of stone money by providing metal tools to the Yapese including chisels, crowbars, mallets and pickaxes. A novel and a movie (starring Burt Lancaster) entitled “His Majesty O’Keefe” are based on his exploits.

There were 13,281 pieces of stone money in 1929 as surveyed by the Yap Branch Government of Japan. Presently, less than fifty percent of that amount exists as many pieces were destroyed during the second world war as the pieces were smashed, broken, became part of a sea wall, used for anchors or used to pave a Japanese airstrip. The oldest pieces are estimated to be 250 years old and the last piece was made about 1931. Rai varies in size from one and a half inches to over 24 feet in diameter. A piece of stone money resembles a flat gristmill with a hole in the middle, so that two or more men can carry it on a pole. It takes a dozen or more men to move a piece 13 feet in diameter.

The natives of Yap used the span (distance between the end of the thumb and little finger, extended) to measure stone money. The larger pieces were measured in fathoms (outstretched arms) while the smallest pieces were measured by the width of a finger. It is estimated that the rai transported by Yapese canoes and/or rafts could not have exceeded eight spans. The largest pieces were transported by foreign vessels, especially by O’Keefe’s.

Stone money had several uses: as ceremonial gifts; purchase of food; payment for houses; payment for canoe building; exchange for the right to use land reefs; and for the arrangement of marriages. Rai was also used by the members of a failu to obtain the services of a mispil (woman shared by members of a failu). It was considered an honor to become mispil of a failu to the point where esteem was accorded to the mispil and at the same time, much prestige accrued to her family. During negotiations with the members of a failu, the head of the family would extol the desirability of his daughter describing her beauty, talents and womanly virtues. To compensate the family and to ease the bereavement of the parents because of their daughter’s absence, a failu could pay a family for a much sought candidate anywhere from one rai of at least five spans, with well defined symmetry, and speckled with quartz, to five pieces of rai, a dozen shell necklaces, a mat made from hibiscus fiber and an outrigger canoe.

The Yapese culture of the late nineteenth century had an elaborate scale of values based on money. Size is not the only factor that determined the value of a piece. Because of its age and history, a smaller piece may be worth more than a larger piece. However, the argonite that was in demand the most was the stone that was most difficult to work with which made it more valuable. The Yapese preferred streaked argonite with a brownish chocolate color and the milky white stone with crystals. In 1910, a three span piece was worth 1,000 coconuts or an 80 to 100 pound pig, or 50 baskets of food. Large shells of mother-of-pearl were used for small change, In 1986, the numismatic value of stone money varied from $400 for a 6 inch piece to $3,500 for a 23 inch piece. Presently, stone money cannot be removed from Yap without the permission of the state governor and predominant chief.