Realm

What these acts said was that it was illegal to pay someone in anything other than coin of the realm.

Instead of giving the money, that is the normal coin of the realm, which is the phrase that everyone used then, they would give them a token, and this token might be metal, might be wood, might be cardboard.

It is not outside of the realm of possibility.

Ho ho, you have always been the brightest amongst my grandchildren! But hearken now: I have come from the nether realm to entrust thee with a task of utmost importance!

The king's realm was terrorized by a dragon.

"Speak, Queen," he answered, "to obey is mine. / To thee I owe this sceptre and whate'er / of realm is here; thou makest Jove benign, / thou giv'st to rule the storms and sit at feasts divine."

East and West / he summoned to his throne, and thus his wrath expressed. / "What pride of birth possessed you, Earth and air / without my leave to mingle in affray, / and raise such hubbub in my realm?"

"The realm thou see'st is Punic; Tyrians are / the folk, the town Agenor's. Round them lie / the Libyan plains, a people rough in war."

"Else, would ye settle in this realm, the town / I build is yours; draw up your ships to land. / Trojan and Tyrian will I treat as one."

"O queen, a tale too true, / too sad for words, thou biddest me repeat; / how Ilion perished, and the Danaan crew / her power and all her wailful realm o'erthrew: / the woes I saw, thrice piteous to behold, / and largely shared."