Creating our own classroom currency

In our yr 5/6 class, we regularly use Banqer bank notes to buy and sell goods at our weekly Banqer Shop. The smaller currency notes work well at the start of the year, while everyone is either busy buying, saving up, or selling their old toys (with parental permission of course!). As the year goes on, we tend to need bigger banknotes than the printable ones supplied by Banqer. We run a yearly competition using online design tools to create our own bank notes in higher denominations such as $500, $1000. The winner of this competition has their note used as part of our class currency. Some of the students even collect the newer currency as we always have them as limited editions.This year we are putting the 3D printer to work to design coins. Having 50 cent coins for purchasing smaller items is always a popular ask. Designing our own class currency leads to great class discussions about how currency is designed, who is responsible for printing it and ensuring that it can't be copied, and what has been used as currency in the past.