10 Cents

The Clunies-Ross family ruled the Cocos (Keeling) Islands as a private fiefdom for over a century, and these plastic tokens were the only legal tender permitted on the islands — workers on the copra plantations were paid exclusively in this scrip, which could only be spent at the family-owned store. It was company currency in the most absolute sense: leaving the island meant the tokens were worthless, and the system effectively bound the workforce in place.

Australian authorities formally investigated the labor conditions as late as the 1970s. The plastic ivory tokens are notoriously fragile and rarely survive without warping or cracking.