The Vault - Fallout Wiki

We've Moved! Just as Gamepedia has joined forces with Fandom, this wiki had joined forces with our Fandom equivalent. The wiki has been archived and we ask that readers and editors move to the now combined wiki on Fandom. Click to go to the new wiki.

READ MORE

The Vault - Fallout Wiki
Advertisement
Icon disambig
This page is about Bottle caps that appear in Fallout: New Vegas. For an overview of bottle caps throughout the Fallout series, see bottle cap. For an overview of currency throughout the Fallout series, see currency.
Bottle cap
FNV Nuka Cola caps
Icon nuka cola cap
Component ofBottlecap mine
UsesCurrency
Value1
Base ID0000000f
001017c6 (sarsaparilla)
 
Gametitle-FNV
Gametitle-FNV

Bottle caps, also known as hubbucks, are the one of the standard currencies in the Mojave Wasteland in Fallout: New Vegas.

Background[]

Bottle caps are one of the symbols of the post-nuclear economy. While widely available, they are also in limited supply, as the technology necessary to manufacture them was largely lost to time and the Great War, and difficult to produce by hand. The paint used, machining, and metal type all have to be very specific in order for a bottle cap to be genuine.[1][2]

These factors led to their adoption by Hub merchants in New California as common unit of exchange, backed by water.[3] The adoption took place rapidly, as within ten years of Hub's founding in 2093,[4] caps became the standard currency of the wasteland.[5] In the 23rd century, the venerable western bottle caps were eventually supplanted by minted and printed currency, New California Republic (NCR) dollars, backed by gold, rather than water.[6] In the 23rd century, the venerable western bottle caps were eventually supplanted by minted and printed currency, New California Republic (NCR) dollars, backed by gold, rather than water.[7] However, during the Brotherhood War the Republic's gold reserves were destroyed by Brotherhood raids to the point where new gold coins could not be minted and paper money could not be properly backed with gold. NCR citizens panicked and rushed to reclaim the listed face value of currency from NCR's remaining gold reserves. Since the NCR was unable to realize these withdrawals, particularly towards the frontier, faith in their currency considerably dropped. To protect against actual economic collapse, the NCR government abandoned the gold standard and established fiat currency, not payable in specie. Since then many wastelanders lost faith in it as a medium of worth, both as a result of it not being backed by anything but the government's word and the inevitable inflation. In response to the loss of faith, merchant consortiums of the Hub established their own currency, the veritable bottle cap, backing it with water (exchanging a standardized measure of water for caps).[8][9][10][11]

The actual process was very deliberate. The merchants conspired to reintroduce the bottle cap as a currency, out of frustration at NCR's ineptitude in handling the currency crisis. Furthermore, since Hub bridges the NCR core region with the Mojave and lands beyond, the cap was meant to bridge the gap between NCR and Legion territories by providing a neutral form of money. In the time leading up to the introduction the merchants laid the foundations for bottle caps as a currency, establishing control of or destroying facilities that could fashion new bottle caps and seizing excessively large caches of old bottle caps (smaller ones in private hands were left alone, as their owners would readily embrace the returning bottle cap).[11]

To protect their monopoly on the currency, Republic merchant companies, particularly the Crimson Caravan Company, seek to control all bottle cap production and ensure that no one can mass produce them and inflate the currency. Controlling bottle cap presses also allows them to replace worn out and damaged bottle caps, keeping the pool of currency stable. Due to the challenges of the bottle cap production process, small scale counterfeiting is ignored, as it's impossible to manufacture enough caps by hand to truly upset the balance.[12][1][13]

Bottle caps, NCR dollars and Legion currency are all 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.

Characteristics[]

The following section is transcluded from Bottle cap. To modify, please edit the source page.

Bottle caps seal the opening of a bottle and are typically colorfully decorated with the logo of the brand of beverage. Plastic caps are used for plastic bottles,[14] and metal with plastic backing is used for glass.

Bottle caps are the common denomination of currency in the Mojave Wasteland, used to pay for all goods. Bottle caps are accepted by all merchants, even those that should accept only faction currencies, such as NCR dollars or Legion coinage.

Variants[]

  • Counterfeit bottle caps - can be found inside the cap counterfeiting shack. These "fake caps" appear identical to standard Nuka-Cola bottle caps, but have no trade value and cannot be used for any monetary purpose.
  • Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle caps - a rare variant of the Sunset Sarsaparilla bottle cap, featuring a blue star on the underside of the cap. These caps are part of the quest The Legend of the Star and thus cannot be sold. Once the quest is completed picking up a Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap will simply add to the player's total bottle cap count.

Locations[]

  • Bottle caps can be found in a number of various containers (even trash cans) scattered across the wasteland.
  • Bottle caps can be exchanged for unwanted goods piling up in ones inventory.
  • A single bottle cap is gain from drinking a Nuka-Cola or Sunset Sarsaparilla.
  • There are around 7000 bottle caps in a very-hard locked chest in Bloodbourne Cave.

Notes[]

  • The cap counter on your Pip-Boy only goes up to 999,999. Once you exceed this amount, it will display that you have 1000000+ caps.
  • The world model of the Sunset Sarsaparilla bottle cap displays a value of "--" but will still increase your bottle cap count by one when picked up.
  • You cannot gain caps by finding a bottle cap press because the only machine is destroyed in Pressing Matters.

Gallery[]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 The Courier: "What makes a bottle cap genuine?"
    Alice McLafferty: "Lots of little things - the paint on the label, the machining, the type of metal it's made from. I know there's counterfeit caps floating around, of course. Fortunately, they're very time-consuming to make, so the numbers are small."
    (Alice McLafferty's dialogue)
  2. Pressing Matters
  3. The Vault Dweller: "{134}{}{Tell me more about bartering.}"
    Katrina: "{139}{}{Bartering is the exchange of goods. You give me some items, and I give you items in trade. Since you initiated the barter, I will let you pick and choose what you want. But the deal must be one that I think I will like, so you will probably want to give me more valuable goods that you don't need in exchange for less expensive things that you want. And if you don't have enough items to trade, there are always caps. Bottle caps are the only common money found out here. The caps are backed by the merchants of the Hub, so you can trade them anywhere.}"
    (SSGUIDE.MSG)
  4. Fallout Bible 0: "2093 The Hub is founded by a man named Angus, who sets up camp around a filthy oasis in the desert, and he proceeds to begin trading with other settlements."
  5. Fallout Bible 0: "2102 May 22 Increasing mutant attacks on Harold's caravans cause Harold to get so pissed he finances one of the first adventuring parties of Fallout to try and find out where these dagnab mutants are coming from. Consulting with a scientist and doctor at the Hub, a man by the name of Grey, the two of them decide to join forces."
    "2102 June 23 Richard Grey's Expedition [including Harold] finds the Mariposa Military Base and the Expedition is scattered and defeated by mutants at the base. Grey is knocked into one of the vats of FEV by a robotic arm, and Harold is knocked unconscious, only to awaken later out in the wasteland."
    "2102 June 27 Harold, already mutating, is found by traders and taken back to the Hub. His former caravan partners and employees, horrified by his condition, abandon him and he is soon left without even two bottlecaps to rub together."
  6. Fallout 2
  7. Fallout 2
  8. J.E. Sawyer src: "And this is discussed in-game: BoS raided NCR's gold reserves until NCR could no longer generate gold coinage nor back their paper money. They abandoned the gold standard and established fiat currency, which is why its value is inflated over both caps and (especially) Legion coinage. (...) People in eastern NCR and the Mojave Wasteland lost faith in the NCR government's a) ability to back the listed value of paper money and b) stability overall. If you're living in Bakersfield, staring at a piece of paper that says "redeemable for value in gold" and you have no faith in the government's ability or willingness to do that -- or if you see that the government has changed the currency to say that it is not able to be exchanged for a backed good -- you may very well listen to the strong consortium of local merchants offering to exchange that paper note for currency backed by water."
  9. J.E. Sawyer, src: "Traders from the Mojave travel the Short Loop into NCR, which means that they have to go through a few hundred miles of solid desert. Carrying enough water to travel from New Vegas to the Boneyard (or vice versa) would undercut cargo capacity significantly. Even the communities around the Mojave Wasteland (other than New Vegas itself) have water brought in and stored in local towers. Of course, the Colorado River is nearby as long as you don't mind walking through an active war zone."
  10. "How does the Hub 'back' caps? Can you exchange a certain number of caps for a standard measure of water? Yes." J.E. Sawyer src
  11. 11.0 11.1 J.E. Sawyer src: "It happened during the BoS-NCR war. I believe Alice McLafferty mentions it, but I'm not positive. She doesn't detail the events in this much detail, but here they are:
    The attacks caused NCR citizens (and others who held NCR currency) to panic, resulting in a rush to reclaim the listed face value of currency from NCR's gold reserves. Inability to do this at several locations (especially near the periphery of NCR territory where reserves were normally low) caused a loss of faith in NCR's ability to back their currency.
    Though NCR eventually stopped the BoS attacks, they decided to protect against future problems by switching to fiat currency. While this meant that BoS could no longer attack a) reserves or b) the source of production (all NCR bills are made in the Boneyard), some people felt more uneasy about their money not having any "real" (backed) value. This loss of confidence increased with NCR inflation, an ever-looming spectre of fiat currency.
    Because the Hub links NCR with the Mojave Wasteland and beyond, the merchants there grew frustrated with NCR's handling of the currency crisis. They conspired to re-introduce the bottle cap as a water-backed currency that could "bridge the gap" between NCR and Legion territory. In the time leading up to the re-introduction, they did the footwork to position themselves properly. If some old-timer had a chest full of caps, they didn't care (in fact, they thought that was great, since the old-timers would enthusiastically embrace the return of the cap), but they did seek to control or destroy production facilities and truly large volumes of caps (e.g. Typhon's treasure) whenever possible."
  12. The Courier: "Are new bottle caps ever made?"
    Alice McLafferty: "Certainly. Bottle caps do wear out or get damaged. Some people even insist on using bottle caps in explosive devices for some reason. We make it a point to scour Pre-War bottling plants and recover or disable the bottle cap presses. It seems we missed one."
    (Alice McLafferty's dialogue)
  13. Pressing Matters
  14. Water
Advertisement