This is a really good discussion on post-apocalyptic economics, front loaded with a very clear and concise description of the term currency.
They bring up various forms of proto-currencies found in drama, literature, games, and history. Any give a look at the shift from cash to collapse and back again.
extra topic info
Below I am sharing some notes for your perusal and discussion.
ignore at your leisure.
Barter
Trading of goods or services directly for other goods or services, without using money or any other similar unit of account or medium of exchange. Although barter represents the earliest form of trade discovered by primitive man that made possible a more extensive division of labor beyond the limited bounds of a family or small clan grouping, it quickly encounters some practical limits to its efficiency as the division of labor becomes still more extensive and more specialized. Bartering requires what economists refer to as a “double coincidence of wants.” That is, for a voluntary barter exchange to take place, it is not enough for you just to find someone who has the exact good you want to acquire — he must also happen to want to “buy” the particular good that you have to trade for it at the same time. Finding someone whose immediate needs exactly complement your own in this precise way may take quite a lot of searching, which is costly in terms of time and effort. The primitive partial solution to this matching problem is to make one or more intermediate swaps with still other people in order to acquire some other item that will be more acceptable to the owner of the item you desire — but this will also tend to be very time-consuming. The more complex the division of labor, the more finely specialized the population’s productive roles, and the more numerous the variety of goods and services produced in an economy, the more costly and cumbersome barter trading will become because the likelihood of any two people having a double coincidence of wants shrinks dramatically. History strongly suggests, in fact, that the (sometimes gradual, sometimes amazingly rapid) replacement of a barter economy by an exchange economy employing some form of money to facilitate trade is a near-absolute necessity before much economic development beyond a rather primitive tribal level can occur.
Feudalistic Economy
If a Hold has a stable market, then an economic support system is likely either in place or quickly developed… especially if a strong Want: Liberties is present among the people.
http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/market_economy
A strong Want: Judgment might press a Hold into an agenda of dogmatism in it’s social contracts…think about how wants can manifest in some unusual ways, especially when multiple competitive wants and needs arise in a nonexclusive manifestation.
http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/bureaucracy
A suitable Want: Conservation can easily develop in even the most primitive Hold, it need not always be another savages & scavengers breeding pit.
http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/conservatism
Any obvious resources want or need… that is not under unusual scarcity… held universally by every member of a Hold is likely to be an open resource available to all established members of that community… and the concept of tightly held resources for the community survival in a resource challenged environment, is sufficient to immediately reduce the schism of fellow-neighbors and nuclear-families — allowing for common properties.
http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/public_goods
Remember that resources are “owned” by them what hold hardest to that land… and the chief custodian of a tribe’s lands, that most honors the common interests of the community, is the most honored magnate amongst equaled souls.
http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/land
When a chief magnate’s honoured position is consolidated under an irrevocable lifetime legitimacy to rule over the tribe’s hard earned holdings; by economic status, noble due, and traditional custom… in a thriving land, it’s good to be the king.
http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/monarchy
mythbusting miscellaneous misconceptions
• Feudal Society and Monarchical Sovereignty, do not always come hand-in-hand.
• Feudal Society is a structure of pyramidal governing power, not an express acknowledgment of a singular despot.
• Monarchical Sovereignty does not always come with explicit rules of heredity entitled only to members of a specific royal family.
• It is the possession of the symbolic Ceremonial Estate Vestment of Highest Honorific Title which has the significance for the state and its institutions, that legitimate customary privileges… unless it’s just a pointy hat, and the person is more inspiring to the people than the furniture.
• No matter how totalitarian the authority is perceived and proscribed; It is a duty and a privilege to maintain a continuum of sovereign rule, not a responsibility to be dishonored or right to be squandered — even by the monarch under the vestments.
Oh… and trading your munitions for scarce supplies, is an unspeakably high show of trust and respect in regard for that person to whom you traded… unless you’ve obviously still got them outgunned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAFXavJ_jk4&feature=youtube_gdata_player