Just a qucik question. I often see energon substituted for Cybertronian currency or cash by people. Is that accurate? I always thought it was a fuel source and even food to them, and I'm sure I read that they used some kind of currency in some story. Can anyone verify for me if there's ever been a currency given in any timeline, universe, story, generation, or series for the Transformers or even individual factions like Autobots? This has really been bugging me. I know that they use different measurements or time (cycles, astrosecond, et cetera), so I figured they'd have to use some kind of money as well if it wasn't just straight up energon.
In Transformers Masterforce, the Autobot Pretenders used regular earth money. Hell, they practically ran on Euro wine as a fuel! In Transformers: Victory, Energon was common as currency amongst the Decepticons. For instance, in one of the episodes, Hellbat paid mercenaries Black Shadow and Blue Bacchus to destroy Planet Micro. That is, until Star Saber and former Decepticon Great Shot sent them both flying back to their base. Edit: I forgot to mention during the Beast Era, I think I saw one of the Maximals holding a small coin (no, not the Golden Disk). Looked like it had a monument on it or some random face.
Transformer currency is a physically small organic, carbon based material, constituted with mostly water. What? Ever wonder why the Autobots kept pesky kids around?
In the Marvel comics, Shanix was a common currency, it just looked like regular gold coins. Both the Decepticons and the Autobots recruited bounty hunter Deaths Head using Shanix.
Shanix was only used in the UK comics, and never mentioned in the Us comics, but that doesn't mean they don't exist in US continuity. In the US Marvel comics, Energon is used as a common bartering unit, as the race the Mechanibals did deal using Energon as a yardstick. One might hypothesize that its use and value was only common to mechanical races, and thus its use is restricted between these races. If Energon is a form of currency, Kup's Universal Greeting with customary offering of energon takes on a slightly more sinister meaning. For all we know, Bah Weep Grah Nah Weep Nini Bong is just part of some elaborate Bribing ritual.
The way I see it, Energon's worth depends on how well refined it is. Energon Chips are your base, low power bits of Energon used as currency, while the more refined types of Energon see more use as fuel. You could just adopt the typical sci-fi system of Credits, though, if you dislike Energon. I've skimmed through plenty of tech specs on the toys, guys like Gutcruncher tend to be paid in some elaborate means like "work for me and I'll let you keep the scrap of our enemies", or Lockdown's "works for the Decepticons because they pay him in upgrades". Barter sounds a pretty good analogy, actually. Currency would not have much meaning after a few thousand years of war, everything would need to be haggled. Interesting note, the upcoming Animated episode Fistful of Energon is a reference to the Clint Eastwood film, Fistful of Dollars. While it is more than likely using Energon as a familiar term, that title does slightly imply that Energon is a kind of currency.
