In India it was long the custom to keep and especially to save money in the form of jewelry. That is, one had the rupees melted and made into jewelry (with only a very small loss of value), and stored it to be given out as silver should the need arise. Apparently value in the form of jewelry is both more condensed and richer in quality. This combination permits value to appear more closely linked to the person in that it becomes more individualistic and temporarily loses its atomized nature.

XREF: Connects to anthropological and economic thought on material culture, money as social object, and embedded vs. disembedded value (e.g., Polanyi, Simmel on money).

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 452