The worthless chip which is often contested as passionately as is a gold piece suggests the formal nature of this impulse, which even in the quarrel over gold often greatly exceeds any material interest.

XREF: This resonates with anthropological work on potlatch, gift economies (Mauss), and how symbolic or status motivations can dominate economic rationality in competition.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 299