Littlemanpoet:
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In fact, not only is coinage, currency, and monetary valuation missing in the Shire, it's missing absolutely everywhere in Middle Earth!
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Not quite. From I.11:
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Bill Ferny's price was twelve silver pennies; and that was indeed at least three times the pony's value in those parts. It proved to be a bony, underfed, and dispirited animal; but it did not look like dying just yet. Mr. Butterbur paid for it himself, and offered Merry another eighteen pence as some compensation for the lost animals. He was an honest man, and well-off as things were reckoned in Bree; but thirty silver pennies was a sore blow to him, and being cheated by Bill Ferny made it harder to bear.
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Of course, this one instance of talk about currency only makes its absence elsewhere more curious.
We must note, though, that while very little is made of the concept of
money, the concept of
wealth does come up quite often in Middle-earth. It's just that one's wealth or poverty is reckoned in terms of things other than currency. Consider, for instance, the value placed on Smaug's hoard by Elves, Men, and Dwarves alike - not to mention by Smaug himself. The hoard of Glaurung with which Hurin "paid" Thingol is another example.