The Stone Money of the Island Paradise of Yap in the South Pacific



May 9, 2005 -- Recently I have had the privilege of hosting one of the selected few in the world. His name is Peter Nagl a rare coin collector and member of a society that helps preserves some of the rarest and oldest coins on this planet. As some may have already know, Yap holds the largest coin in the world and for coin collectors such as Peter a visit to Yap is a must to view and photograph the hundreds of stone money lined in a single file in their respective place we called the " stone money bank". Our adventure took us to remote and sacred grounds where we had to cut through thick jungle to make way for us to reach an old stone money believed to have given the warriors of old the strength to be invincible to the enemy. They would scratch out and collect the lime dust which comes out of the stone money and make an ointment which is placed on each warriors head ornament before going into war. This was said to have made them powerful against their adversaries, and with this thought it made us more interested to find this piece of stone.

After whacking through the jungle and getting lost a couple of times we managed to find the piece of stone money , what made it more unique was the fact that the stone had two holes instead of one. This visit to this particular stone has not been done by any tourist before the last person that had seen this piece of stone was an anthropologist some 20 years ago. We also obtained and traveled to the forbidden island where they hold the largest stone money in Yap - some 15 feet in diameter with a 3 feet hole in the middle, and 2 feet in thickness. Although they did not allow us to bring camera's to the island, I had the opportunity to show Peter where Yap keeps it's largest of stone money .

Stone Money in Yap was quarried and brought back on ancient voyaging canoes some 255 nautical miles in Open Ocean. The navigators, warriors, and chiefs of Yap made this possible through traditional voyaging skills, respect to the environment, and respect to each other. The stones today are still in use perhaps not as much as in the old days, but it signifies and echoes the message of power in unity. For those of you that would visit Yap you can see stone money virtually everywhere you go.





The Stone Money of the Island Paradise of Yap in the South Pacific