Bottle cap

Bottle caps, also referred to as caps for short, are the standard currency in Fallout, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel and Fallout Shelter. 
Fallout 2 is an exception, with bottle caps being an archaic currency supplanted by the NCR minted dollar, while Fallout Tactics uses Brotherhood scrip and ring pulls.
==Background==
Durable, portable, and instantly recognizable, bottle caps (predominantly from Nuka-Cola) rapidly became one of the most common currencies accepted by traders in post-War North America,Fallout 76 loading screens: "Durable, easy to carry, and quickly recognizable, the Nuka-Cola bottle cap is one of the most common currencies used by traders in post-war America." in line with speculation by Doctor Mobius about the role they might play in post-War economies.Borous: "*{Quiet, trying not to embarrass himself}What? Like... stuff? Things?*"
Klein: "YES. THINGS.
Borous: "*{Quiet, skeptical}I don't know... might be some old Nuka Cola or Sunset Sarsaparilla bottlecaps lying around. It... It's not "currency" per se... Still, might be enough to trick the Sink's trade routines. Mobius put that test line for caps in the code as a debug command, I think.*"
Dala: "I don't believe that was Mobius' reason. His wild speculation concerning post-holocaust economic systems was quite extensive. And of high decibel."
Klein: "ENOUGH! SURRENDER THESE SO-CALLED BOTTLECAPS, NUKA AND SUNSET ALIKE. IN THEIR ROLE AS THINGS, THEY WILL SERVE AS ADEQUATE TEST SUBJECTS." The earliest known adoption of bottle caps as currency took place in New California: Within ten years of Hub's founding in 2093,Fallout Bible 0: "2093 The Hub is founded by a man named Angus, who sets up camp around a filthy oasis in the desert, and he proceeds to begin trading with other settlements." caps became the standard currency of the wasteland.Fallout Bible 0: "2102 May 22 Increasing mutant attacks on Harold's caravans cause Harold to get so pissed he finances one of the first adventuring parties of Fallout to try and find out where these dagnab mutants are coming from. Consulting with a scientist and doctor at the Hub, a man by the name of Grey, the two of them decide to join forces.""2102 June 23 Richard Grey's Expedition [including Harold] finds the Mariposa Military Base and the Expedition is scattered and defeated by mutants at the base. Grey is knocked into one of the vats of FEV by a robotic arm, and Harold is knocked unconscious, only to awaken later out in the wasteland.""2102 June 27 Harold, already mutating, is found by traders and taken back to the Hub. His former caravan partners and employees, horrified by his condition, abandon him and he is soon left without even two bottlecaps to rub together." The widespread use by Hub merchants leading to the nickname Hub bucks,Demetre Romara: "{118}{}{We pay 600 hub bucks a job! That's each way! Hell, people say we take all the dangerous routes but I say they're the most excitin'! You need a little excitement in your life, am I right? Of course I am!}"(Demetre Romara's dialogue) Hubbucks,Caravan driver: "{106}{}{You'll get 400 hubbucks. You might be sayin' that it ain't that much, but we go out often and you ain't gonna lose your life that easy. But you get that pay going each way, not that you have to go each way, but you'll get a total of 800 if you do. }"(Caravan drivers' dialogue) bucks,Jasmine: "{118}{}{Well done, lad. Here's your reward. [Jasmine gives you 3000 bucks]}"(Jasmine's dialogue) Hub script,Aradesh: "{238}{Ara_41}{Of course, I will reward you. Bring her and you will receive 500 in Hub Script. Will you help me?}"(Aradesh's dialogue) or just script.Referred to as such by Lorri, Justin Greene, Decker, Keri Lee, Hub cops, caravan drivers and guards in Fallout.
The Hub merchants selected bottle caps because of two factors: First, the technology to manufacture them and paint their surfaces had been mostly lost in the Great War, which limited any counterfeiting efforts: The paint used, machining, and metal type all have to be very specific in order for a bottle cap to be genuine.The Courier: "What makes a bottle cap genuine?"Alice McLafferty: "Lots of little things - the paint on the label, the machining, the type of metal it's made from. I know there's counterfeit caps floating around, of course. Fortunately, they're very time-consuming to make, so the numbers are small."(Alice McLafferty's dialogue) Second, there is a limited number of bottle caps, which preserves their value against inflation to some degree.Pressing Matters Finally, the Hub merchants in New California could support it as a common unit of exchange by backing it with water.The Vault Dweller: "{134}{}{Tell me more about bartering.}"Katrina: "{139}{}{Bartering is the exchange of goods. You give me some items, and I give you items in trade. Since you initiated the barter, I will let you pick and choose what you want. But the deal must be one that I think I will like, so you will probably want to give me more valuable goods that you don't need in exchange for less expensive things that you want. And if you don't have enough items to trade, there are always caps. Bottle caps are the only common money found out here. The caps are backed by the merchants of the Hub, so you can trade them anywhere.}"(Katrina's dialogue) 
For similar reasons the East Coast merchants also recognized bottle caps as a currency. However, their earliest recorded use by survivors in Appalachia in 2096, appears to be an unintended result of a cross-promotional campaign: The Nuka-Cola Corporation partnered with the Whitespring Resort to promote the newly released Nuka-Cola Quantum. As part of the event, all Whitespring robots were programmed to accept bottlecaps as currency, allowing visitors to enjoy numerous deals.The Whitespring Resort terminal entries; Candy Shoppe Office terminal, Staff Bulletin, October 2077Whitespring concierge: ""(Whitespring concierge's dialogue) 
While caps were the de facto standard currency in the West, the rise of the New California Republic (NCR) led to the widespread adoption of dollars, backed by gold reserves, which displaced the water-backed caps.Appearance and gameplay mechanics in Fallout 2. However, during the Brotherhood War the Republic's gold reserves out in the frontier were destroyed by Brotherhood raids to the point where the NCR was forced to stop minting new gold coins so as to put an end to the raids completely. An act that indirectly resulted in Republic paper money no longer being properly backed with gold. NCR citizens panicked and rushed to reclaim the listed face value of currency from NCR's remaining gold reserves. Since the NCR was unable to realize these withdrawals, particularly towards the frontier, faith in their currency considerably dropped. In order to contain the financial fallout that would be caused by the inevitable inflation to come, the NCR government abandoned the gold standard and established fiat currency, not payable in specie. Since then many wastelanders lost faith in it as a medium of worth, both as a result of it not being backed by anything but the government's word and the inevitable inflation. In response to the loss of faith, merchant consortiums of the Hub established their own currency, the venerable bottle cap, backing it with water (exchanging a standardized measure of water for caps).Joshua Sawyer on Something Awful Forums: "And this is discussed in-game: BoS raided NCR's gold reserves until NCR could no longer generate gold coinage nor back their paper money. They abandoned the gold standard and established fiat currency, which is why its value is inflated over both caps and (especially) Legion coinage. (...) People in eastern NCR and the Mojave Wasteland lost faith in the NCR government's a) ability to back the listed value of paper money and b) stability overall. If you're living in Bakersfield, staring at a piece of paper that says "redeemable for value in gold" and you have no faith in the government's ability or willingness to do that -- or if you see that the government has changed the currency to say that it is not able to be exchanged for a backed good -- you may very well listen to the strong consortium of local merchants offering to exchange that paper note for currency backed by water."Joshua Sawyer on Something Awful Forums: "Traders from the Mojave travel the Short Loop into NCR, which means that they have to go through a few hundred miles of solid desert. Carrying enough water to travel from New Vegas to the Boneyard (or vice versa) would undercut cargo capacity significantly. Even the communities around the Mojave Wasteland (other than New Vegas itself) have water brought in and stored in local towers. Of course, the Colorado River is nearby as long as you don't mind walking through an active war zone."Joshua Sawyer on Something Awful Forums: "'How does the Hub 'back' caps? Can you exchange a certain number of caps for a standard measure of water?' Yes."Joshua Sawyer on Something Awful Forums: "It happened during the BoS-NCR war. I believe Alice McLafferty mentions it, but I'm not positive. She doesn't detail the events in this much detail, but here they are:The attacks caused NCR citizens (and others who held NCR currency) to panic, resulting in a rush to reclaim the listed face value of currency from NCR's gold reserves. Inability to do this at several locations (especially near the periphery of NCR territory where reserves were normally low) caused a loss of faith in NCR's ability to back their currency.Though NCR eventually stopped the BoS attacks, they decided to protect against future problems by switching to fiat currency. While this meant that BoS could no longer attack a) reserves or b) the source of production (all NCR bills are made in the Boneyard), some people felt more uneasy about their money not having any "real" (backed) value. This loss of confidence increased with NCR inflation, an ever-looming spectre of fiat currency.Because the Hub links NCR with the Mojave Wasteland and beyond, the merchants there grew frustrated with NCR's handling of the currency crisis. They conspired to re-introduce the bottle cap as a water-backed currency that could "bridge the gap" between NCR and Legion territory. In the time leading up to the re-introduction, they did the footwork to position themselves properly. If some old-timer had a chest full of caps, they didn't care (in fact, they thought that was great, since the old-timers would enthusiastically embrace the return of the cap), but they did seek to control or destroy production facilities and truly large volumes of caps (e.g. Typhon's treasure) whenever possible."
It was not a random occurrence: The merchants conspired to reintroduce the bottle cap as a currency, out of frustration at NCR's ineptitude in handling the currency crisis. Furthermore, since Hub bridges the NCR core region with the Mojave and lands beyond, the cap could bridge the gap between NCR and Legion territories by providing a neutral form of money. In the time leading up to the introduction the merchants laid the foundations for bottle caps as a currency, establishing control of or destroying facilities that could fashion new bottle caps and seizing excessively large caches of old bottle caps (smaller ones in private hands were left alone, as their owners would readily embrace the returning bottle cap).
To protect their monopoly on the currency, Republic merchant companies, particularly the Crimson Caravan Company, aggressively sought to control all bottle cap production and ensure that no one can mass produce them and inflate the currency. Controlling bottle cap presses also allows them to replace worn out and damaged bottle caps, keeping the pool of currency stable. Due to the challenges of the bottle cap production process, small scale counterfeiting is ignored, as it's impossible to manufacture enough caps by hand to truly upset the balance.The Courier: "Are new bottle caps ever made?"Alice McLafferty: "Certainly. Bottle caps do wear out or get damaged. Some people even insist on using bottle caps in explosive devices for some reason. We make it a point to scour Pre-War bottling plants and recover or disable the bottle cap presses. It seems we missed one."(Alice McLafferty's dialogue)
Bottle caps, NCR dollars and Legion currency are all considered legal tender by the various caravan companies and on the New Vegas Strip. Mojave merchants also accept nonstandard variants, such as Sunset Sarsaparilla bottle caps.
==Variants==
===Nuka-Cola bottle cap===
Standard Nuka-Cola bottle caps featuring 21 crimps and ridges, used as the basic form of currency throughout many of the American wastes.Fallout: The Roleplaying Game Rulebook p.84: "The standard accepted currency across North America, bottle caps are finite in supply and difficult to reproduce, which makes them ideal as a token of value for merchants travelling the wastelands, in the absence of the banking methods that supported pre-War currencies." Their value differs throughout the games.
===Counterfeit Nuka-Cola bottle cap===
Physically they appear identical to standard Nuka-Cola bottle caps and are presumably intended to be used for trading in place of actual bottle caps. They are produced by unknown persons, have no trade value, and cannot be used for any monetary purpose.
===Sunset Sarsaparilla bottle cap===
This nonstandard variant, taken off Sunset Sarsaparilla bottles, is used in the Mojave Wasteland alongside Nuka-Cola caps.
===Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap===
A rare variant of the Sunset Sarsaparilla bottle cap, featuring a blue star on the underside of the cap. These can be traded in to Festus at the Sunset Sarsaparilla headquarters for a reward.
===Alcohol bottle cap===
In the Commonwealth, Nuka-Cola bottle caps aren't the only type accepted by merchants. Certain alcoholic beverages, like beer, which use crimp caps similar to Nuka-Cola, are also used.
===Vim bottle cap===
This nonstandard variant, taken off Vim bottles, is used on The Island alongside Nuka-Cola caps.
===Bawls bottle cap===
Bawls is a real-world energy drink with a guarana flavor that replaced Nuka-Cola as the main post-nuclear soft drink of choice in Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. This special type of bottle cap is valued as 100 times that of a Nuka-Cola bottle cap.
==Behind the scenes==
;Developer quotes
==Gallery==
FNV currency-coin 1.png|Bottle caps from Caravan interface
FNV Bottle cap caravan.png|Oblique view
Fallout Magic Treasure (Survival, Tech) token.png|Magic: The Gathering treasure token
==References==
Non-game
Category:Economy
de:Kronkorken
es:Chapa
fr:Capsule de bouteille
it:Tappo di bottiglia
pl:Kapsle
pt:Tampa de Garrafa
ru:Крышки от бутылок
uk:Кришки від пляшок
zh:瓶盖