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OCEANIA: MICRONESIA: Yap, rai stone money (8025g), before 1871, VF

Currency:USD Category:Antiques / Ethnographic - Pacific Islands & Oceania Start Price:4,000.00 USD Estimated At:5,000.00 - 6,000.00 USD
OCEANIA: MICRONESIA: Yap, rai stone money (8025g), before 1871, VF
SOLD
8,500.00USD+ (1,700.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2023 Jun 12 @ 11:14UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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OCEANIA: MICRONESIA: Yap, rai stone money (8025g), before 1871, Opitz p.316-321, pre-O'Keefe type, 29.5 x 26 x 8cm (11" x 10¼" x 3¼", 17.69 lbs), with 4cm-wide hole in the center, acquired by Holland A. Davis (1869-1955) on Yap, accompanied by letters of ownership history from Leo A. Young and Donald H. Kagin and old wooden display base, a lovely example with great provenance! VF, RR, ex Holland A. Davis, ex Leo A. Young, ex Art M. Kagin, ex Donald H. Kagin. Known locally as rai or fei, the Yap stone money is a disc-shaped stone with a hole in the center for transportation, with sizes ranging from a whopping 12 feet to a mere 2 inches in diameter. The stone for making rai is not found on Yap itself and was instead sourced from Palau, located some 280 miles (450km) away. Before the arrival of European traders, a Yapese chief would grant permission to a work crew to sail to Palau, manufacture the money, and bring them back in their canoes. These stones were no larger than 4 feet as a result of the limited means of transportation. Bigger examples did not appear until the arrival of Western traders and their large ships in the late 19th century. Due to their size and fragility, the larger stones are not physically exchanged in a transaction and are simply displayed in public, often outside of one's house or on the side of a road. Instead, each stone has a unique oral history of ownership that is agreed on and widely known to the community. In fact, according to oral tradition, one stone fell into the ocean during a storm just before it reached the island. But because survivors were able to testify to its existence, it continued to be used just like any other stone money. Stone money was produced as late as 1931, and a contemporary survey found a total of 13,281 pieces on Yap. However, many were destroyed and used for road construction during WWII, and only half are estimated to have survived to the present day. Furthermore, it has been illegal to export them from Yap since 1965. Hence all examples of the stone money on the market are very rare and highly sought after.Holland A. Davis was the secretary of the American Philatelic Society from 1916 to 1945.