Along the same lines, Rothbard mentions in passing in What Has Government Done to Our Money that nails were once used for currency. Rothbard mentions Scotland. But in the early days on the American frontier too, nails were so scarce that people often would burn down a home before they moved on. The reason was so they could collect the nails to be reused. In our modern era, we might find it hard to believe that nails were this scarce, but a couple hundred years ago, that was the case.
