Just saw this note about gold leaf as currency in The Tang Sect Crisis (Long Chengfeng, tr. Lone Crane, https://wuxiawanderings.com/wuxia/long-chengfeng/tang-sect-crisis/) and was reminded of the conversation we had about Xie Lian’s gold foil palace in #TGCFReadAlong.
The character Water Cat “tipped people at least ten pieces of gold leaf” and “could carelessly squander hundreds of pieces of gold leaf without batting an eye,” but I think this must be a huge exaggeration of actual usage!