Do reward tokens qualify halachically as money?

Question

I give my children special slips of paper as a reward for good behavior (a "token economy"). They can collect these slips of paper and use them to "buy" rewards such as toys, treats, or fun activities.

Do these reward tokens have the halachic properties of money? For example, are they muktzeh on Shabbos? Could I reward my kids with them on Shabbos? Could they trade them in for prizes on Shabbos? Do they theoretically have a value that makes it possible to use them in any kind of kinyan or redemption?

Answer 1

Regarding fake money (tokens) being Muktzah, as mentioned in the answer below, the answer is yes - it is Muktzah, because the whole reason why money is Muktzah is because you can’t use it for anything other than exchanging it for something else, and therefore has no toras kli (see Shulchan Aruch Harav, Orach Chaim 308:8)

When it comes to Kinyanim, the Tur (Choshen Mishpat 203) paskens regarding coins that aren’t minted properly or aren’t minted at all, that compared to money they are considered ordinary objects, but when compared to other objects they are like money, in the sense that if you give these coins in exchange for real money, the transaction is completed, but if you exchange them for other objects, it would not be completed, until the other party received the object in turn

With regards to using it in order to redeem Ma’aser Sheini, there is an argument in the Gemara (Bava Metzia 47b) as to whether such coins are permitted, and the Rambam paskens that they are not

Answer 2

Be'er Moshe 6:100 says it is permitted to play with fake paper money on Shabbos, however he says not to play with fake coins. Ohr L'Tziyon 2:42:5 note 5 says it is permitted to play Monopoly on Shabbos since the fake money is only a toy.