The Stone Money of Yap - Smithsonian Institution

10 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY
share in copra production found in some islands even
today. In 1875 Robertson noted:
Until recently the natives of Uap visit (the Pellews) in canoes.
Recendy, however, the number of European vessels trading to
these islands has been greater than formerly and passages are
readily granted to islanders to and from Uap to the Pellews
where they dig out and fashion what serves them as
currency. . 10 °
At the time of Miiller's writing, each Yapese "went
individually or sent his bondsman for him." 101 With
the ready availability of foreign ships any man could
seek his own passage and hew out his own stone money.
Some vestiges of former regal privileges extended
into the twentieth century. The history of the large
piece owned and exhibited by the Department of
Anthropology of the Smithsonian Institution records
restraints imposed upon the commoner. This piece
was quarried by Mr. You of Kaday while he and
Chief Rangnibay of Tolpong were on Palau Island at
the money quarry:
At that time only one small German steamship was available
to haul money. A system of priorities was in effect which gave
first shipping priority to high-ranking Yapese, relegating the
rank and file to second place. Quite often the latter never got
their money shipped. 102
Rai were often given individual names. Inez De
Beauclair, an anthropologist who lived on Yap from
March 1961 to January 1962, stated that she found a
name might be that of the chief who had given
permission to sail to Palau or that of the canoe in
which the piece had been shipped. She also mentioned
that the name of the maker might be used if he died
during the work in Palau or perished at sea. 103 Franz
Hernsheim, Consul of the Marshalls who travelled
throughout Micronesia, wrote in 1884 that the older
stones had engraved on them the "names" of those
who quarried and shipped the piece to Yap. 104 I have
found no evidence elsewhere of this custom and am
not aware of stones that have writings on them.
Einzig, however, repeats Hernsheim. 105 Rai named
after commoners probably increased once Yapese
began to go to Palau on their own rather than as a
member of a sanctioned party. Obtaining money
became a more individual affair and the ownership
of this money also became more individual over the
years.
The aragonite most in demand was the stone most
difficult to work, which probably explains its value.
"The streaked aragonite of a brownish chocolate
color and the milky white stone with small crystals"
was preferred. 106 The locations of the quarries were
often quite inaccessible so that men were required to
build special frameworks. The best made stones reportedly
are those which are thicker at the center hole
and slope towards the rim. 107 There is one such unusually
thick piece in the Department of Anthropology,
National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution. 108 It is the darkest of the
stones in that collection, almost chocolate brown in
color. With the early stones the center hole was made
by using a "shell adze (gi) and then drilled with a
reef-stone used as a fire-drill." 109 De Beauclair says
that the procedure required a great deal of time and
thus "there are only a few pieces of that kind on the
island." uo Relative to the overall number there were
probably few made with these early tools. Before the
use of iron the surface of the stones was polished with
pumice. 111 The surface texture and appearance of rai
vary greatly. The change in tools and techniques of
quarrying over the years may explain these differences.
The larger piece in the Division of Numismatics,
National Museum of History and Technology,
Smithsonian Institution, is polished to a very smooth,
almost enamel-like surface. This is also true of those
owned by the Tokyo National Museum, the Lannan
Foundation, and the Pennsylvania University museum.
The surfaces of almost all of these stones are also
stepped or smoothed into two distinct planes. Usually
both sides of a rai are similar in appearance, though
the smaller of the two stones on exhibit in the National
Museum of Natural History, has only one side stepped.
Many large specimens, as those owned by the Chase
Manhattan Bank in New York City, the large piece
on exhibit in the National Museum of Natural History,
the largest of the pieces in the Ubersee-Museum,
Bremen, and the one in the Svenska Handelsbanken
in Stockholm, are extremely rough and porous
in surface appearance and are not stepped. A distinctive
feature of the Leiden stone is a groove around
the lip of the center. One example held by the Department
of Anthropology, National Museum of
Natural History, has rough, whitish marks on the
surface as if inscribed by an iron file. 112 This piece is
extremely dark in color, verging on brown, and also
has a sparkling appearance. The rough, porous
stones tend towards the creamy colors and are dull
in finish.
Muller found that before the days when the
foreigners' transportation was utilized, the stones
were drifted out to sea on large bamboo rafts and
in a matter of days were picked up by the canoes
for towing to Yap. 113 If the canoe and raft arrived