I had a realization yesterday about The Golden Compass...

[XemaSab]

When people die in this world, either an image of their daemon or the daemon's name is inscribed on a coin and either put with the person's skull (as in the case of the scholars) or put in the person's mouth (in the case of Tony Makarios).

Traditionally, dead people were buried with money so they could pay the boatman, but in Lyra's world, the boatman asks a far greater price...