all slaves were the property of the state. Currency Lycurgus added to Sparta’s constitution a provision banning the circulation and possession of gold, silver, or other precious metals as a means of transacting business, replacing them with an iron currency (variously reported as being in the form of disc or of bars). Called pelanors, Plutarch wrote that the new currency was made from iron that had been quenched in a vinegar bath after being raised to red heat, thereby rendering it too brittle for use in making tools. The new iron money, besides being intrinsically useless, was bulky and hard to transport. This action was seen by Plutarch as a way of isolating Sparta from outside trade, stimulating the development of its internal arts and crafts so as to prevent foreign influences and the decadence of markets. This encumbering currency also rid Sparta of every crime in which the theft of hard currency was the objective. Common mess halls Another way to create equality was the Spartan institution of the syssitia (), the practice that required all Spartan men to eat together in common mess halls. With the creation of mess-halls, everybody ate the same food, fostering a feeling of equality. Plutarch describes the institution as consisting of companies ('syssitia', or 'eating-together' groups) of about fifteen men, each bound to bring in and contribute each month a bushel of meal, eight gallons of wine, five pounds of cheese, two and a half pounds of figs, and a small amount of money to buy meat or fish with. When any member made a personal sacrifice to the gods, he would send some portion to the syssition, and when any member hunted, he sent part of the animal he had killed, to share with his messmates. Personal sacrifices of this sort and hunting were the only excuses that allowed a man to justify eating at his own home, instead of with the mess hall (syssition): otherwise, men were expected to eat daily with their syssition comrades. Even kings were apparently expected to take part in a mess hall, and were not to eat privately at home with their wives. Spartan women apparently ate together with and spent most of their time with each other, and not their husbands or sons older than seven (see below on the agoge). Education of boys He was also credited with the development of the agoge ().