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 the exception with bottle caps being an archaic currency supplanted by the NCR minted dollar.

Background
In New California, the relative scarcity of bottle caps made them a perfect currency for Hub merchants to adopt in the 22nd century, leading to the nickname "Hubbucks" and "Hubscript." Backed by the value of water, the Hub merchants supported bottle caps because the technology to manufacture them and paint their surfaces had been mostly lost in the Great War, which limited any counterfeiting efforts. Secondly, there are a limited number of bottle caps, which preserve their value against inflation to some degree. These factors led to their adoption by Hub merchants in New California as common unit of exchange, backed by water. The adoption took place rapidly, as within ten years of Hub's founding in 2093, caps became the standard currency of the wasteland.

For similar reasons the East Coast merchants also recognize bottle caps as a currency. Their earliest recorded use by survivors originates in Appalachia as of 2096. An advertising campaign the Nuka-Cola Corporation was testing out allowed exchange of bottle caps with robotic vendors at the Whitespring Resort due to the release of Nuka-Cola Quantum.

While becoming the standard currency for Hub merchants in the 22nd century, by the mid-23rd century bottle caps were replaced by New California Republic (NCR) dollars, which were backed by gold. Caps would once again become a regularly-used currency after the destruction of NCR's gold reserves by the Brotherhood of Steel destabilized the value of the dollar.

By the late-23rd century, the presence of Caesar's Legion (who have their own currency) and the low value of the NCR dollar caused bottle caps to re-emerge as the standard currency of the Mojave Wasteland in 2281. Nevertheless, NCR and Legion currency are both 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.

However, based on the relative prices of items on the East Coast and West Coast, the bottle cap currency is used in larger amounts in the former.

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.

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. Their value differs throughout the games; in Fallout: New Vegas, they don't appear to be worth as much as they are in Fallout 3.

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.

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.