The Clavic Empire is known to use chits in place of actual money. They are basically Imperial IOUs, which are supposed to be good to trade for actual cash in the even that a Clavic soldier does not have cash to dispense (for goods, services, or information). What people don't realize, until it's too late, is that sometimes the Empire doesn't honor the chits, and the citizen is left with nothing.
In the early days of the Empire, currencies used by invaded nations were rounded up and replaced by chits until the Clavic Gildan could be circulated. In this way, the chits were a sort of temporary fiat currency until the gildans, which are backed by Byrridium, could be minted.