What is Money? Ask a Taxi Driver!

Some years ago, one of the American economists learned a great lesson about
money from Russian taxi drivers.
In August 1989, as part of a group of American economists, he traveled to Moscow
and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in what was then the Soviet-Union to discuss
with soviet economists some economic problems faced by both countries.
Taking taxis in Moscow to and from meetings and dinners was an ordeal. The
author’s hosts had given the U.S. economists rubles (Soviet currency at the time),
but Russian merchants and taxi drivers discouraged payments in rubles. Taxi drivers
quoted a bewildering array of fares in terms of U.S. dollars, German marks, or
Japanese yen. And the fares varied from cab to cab.
When the author relayed this frustration to his wife, she explained that she had no
difficulties with taxis. She paid the fare with Marlboro cigarettes instead of
currency!
The author used Marlboros the next day (no other brand worked as well) and was
able to pay taxi drivers with great success. He found that the taxi drivers could easily
convert all major currencies to Marlboro equivalents.
At least during that period, Marlboro cigarettes had displaced the official currency
(rubles) as the money most widely used by Moscow taxi drivers.

From: Money, Banking, and the Financial System, Ubbard - O'Brien - Ed Pearson