They still used hard currency for some things. Not just credit transferred electronically, but real, honest-to-god currency. Coins made of metallicized plastic, bills of coated mylar. The actual base currency was the familiar nuyen, like just about everywhere else on the continent. But it seemed that most minor transactions—like paying for parking and probably bribes—were conducted using coins and bills. When Falcon had pulled out his credstick, the parking attendant, a big slag with a dyed Mohawk cut, had gotten a mite testy. Falcon played the dumb tourist trip to the hilt, claiming he was fresh into the nation from Salish-Shidhe lands, quickly apologizing for his ignorance. In a flash of brilliance, he asked the attendant if he could rack up a larger bill on his credstick and take the change in coin. After a minute or so of bitching and whining, the slag had agreed, charging him a hundred nuyen for a five-nuyen parking fee, and handing him eighty-five nuyen in assorted coins and bills. (The extra ten nuyen was, of course, a "transaction fee," required by law.) With the coins an unaccustomed weight in his pocket, Falcon strolled away from the freelance entrepreneur, and started to cruise.