Currency in Aman and Arda?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

As for most of the kingdoms of Men, I guess that's just what you said - the silver pennies, I am not aware of any other mention of currency elsewhere. We can only speculate if there was more or less unified currency (perhaps left from the Númenorean times), or if other kinds of people had different currencies of their own. It would make sense, in my opinion, if the more "primitive" nations of Men had simpler sort of barter-systems, somewhere using different things than money as the "currency" (as in, it used to be e.g. silk in some nations in the past in our world, and so on); and those who came in contact with the Dúnedain (so in time of LotR, the lands which used to be the provinces of Gondor and Arnor, including Hobbit-lands; it seems logical that Rohanians would accept the system as well by that time) started to use money (which I can easily imagine being "invented" by the Númenoreans, especially with their sort of colonial system it would make a lot of sense, because they would need some common currency for trade among themselves, when their merchants brought goods from various parts of the world).

As for other races, and earlier times, I can imagine the Dwarves trading for gems and various metal ingots, of which they'd have really abundant amount. Gems and precious metals would be used also in "inter-racial trade", as it seems to be mentioned also in Sil and everywhere. It is worth mentioning that in the Hobbit, Thorin, when explaining the history of Erebor to Bilbo, mentions that the Dwarves under the Mountain used to trade their craft for food provided by the Men of Dale; and it is not clear whether they used money as a sort of means for it or if it was just a sort of barter-trade. Also, I don't know if the Dwarves would have had any need for having a currency among themselves.

Personally, my belief is that the non-human races would have had rather different system of trade, or even a rather different attitude towards personal ownership. For that matter, I am pretty convinced that the Elves did not really care - yes, that's the word - about private ownership of something. Everything indicates that they did not have much of a bond to material things (with a few exceptions, and note that it is mostly considered negative, like Fëanor's case). Also, you never hear about any social differences between Elves in this manner - simply because, I believe, there was nothing to begin with. Yes, an Elven King probably had much more fancy clothes than the others, adorned with jewellery and such, but that was simply as a symbol of his status as a King, which had nothing to do with ownership - and the other Elves would simply not wear an adorned crown, because they were not the King, but if they wanted, I think nothing would prevent them from getting themselves one. Especially given the Elven immortality, it is only natural that they would not care so much about material possessions - as they would pass, sooner or later, while the Elf will continue living. The Elves seemed to merrily enjoy material pleasures when they lasted - their houses, food, drink, clothes, everything was wonderful, we are told - but they were not, sort of, bound to it. They also enjoyed the nature and so on, which of course did not belong to anybody, and I think they'd perceive their crafted materials in the same way: simply as an "extension" of the nature, something they only made more beautiful, but using the substance which did not belong to anybody in the first place. Of course, if an Elf warrior owned a sword, the others perceived it as his and would not use it, but there was probably no need for "law" like that, and nobody would come to him asking "how much do you want for it?" If the Elf wanted to give it away, he would do so and anybody could pick the sword up, but if he didn't want to, nobody would force him. We can see an echo of this, I believe, also in the request of the Valar themselves to Fëanor: they had the respect for private property in this way that they would not force Fëanor to give his Silmarils away as they were his. Note also that they did not start talking about buying them from him or something.

In general terms, I would say the Elven society would be the closest to what we might call communism: each Elf was working, but when it came to making a banquet (like in Gildor's case), it really did not matter who eats five pieces of bread and who eats only one, it seemed that they had always more than enough, and so one can assume that for example an Elven baker would not mind how much of lembas he made, because he seemingly just enjoyed making them and also sort of knew that if he wanted a jeweller to make him some nice jewels, he would do it for him just the same as he bakes the bread for him.

In any case, at least when it comes to Aman, I cannot imagine any sort of currency existing there - given that it was a Paradise-sort of land, it was really not necessary to trade anything for anything there.