A recent thread has me wondering (ALERT! POLL THREAD!)....

Coins are fairly common and are easy to acquire and cost relatively little (as low as 1¢ per coin--or even lower, for folks with easy access to poorer countries). But they are dull, common things with little "spark" or "color."

What alternate objects do you use for coins?

What would be ideal objects to use for coins, if you could get them?

Curiously yours;
David

I'm working on a Universalis deck of cards that I can use for both Coins and dice. 

I'm going to use super fancy shiny backed card protectors to jazz them up.

Any decent craft/knitting etc. store has all sorts of funky beads, bobbles, disks etc. you can use for any sort of counter.  Going to cost you more than 1 penny each but many will also have a "mismatch/ends" bin with cheapie ones if you're okay or like the idea of it being an assortment of different ones.

On consideration, I think that if possible the coins should be more than just mere "counters." They should help in some way to promote the flavor of the game, that the idea that you're trading magic coins for plot control rather than just keeping track of stuff with tokens. That's why I chose the chrome-foil party favor coins I mentioned in another thread; "gold" coins with a big dollar sign on them. Due to the stylized way that money is represented in many comics and cartoons (as gold coins with nothing dollar signs on them), they're practically a story archetype in and of themselves.

OK, I'll chime in for a couple:

Glass beads - For a magical, fantasy, etc game. Each player could even have their own color, which at the least would make it easy to see the ebb and flow of support in a challenge.

Largish ball bearings - For a steampunk, cyber, modern, etc. game. Possibly a bit of a handling problem, as they can roll away easily, but would feel very evocative, to me.

Candy, nuts, small pretzels, etc. - Eaten when spent, of course! Could be very fattening, though. :)

David

Here's another economical idea for coins. 400 poker chips for $2 plus shipping.