Money is of exceeding importance in our culture; without it, nothing gets done. It retains its value even in the abstract, and it is often abstracted to nothing more than a tally. Naturally we put a lot of faith in the banking system to ensure that our tally is tallied correctly. Prior to this assignment, I thought money was simple: you either had it or you didn’t. I wasn’t privy to the inner workings of the banking system or how they ensure that your money is kept straight. However in working on this assignment, and in comparing the Yap Fei to the intercontinental gold trade and to other currencies such as the Brazilian cruzero, I’ve learned that currency is all very similar; because nobody sees their money bring transferred, we have to trust things like our paycheck coming through.