Coins (also referred to as "credits" in some countries) are virtual currency in the world of Habbo. They were introduced in patch 1.1 on July 3, 2004 by John Hodgens.
When Habbo Hotel first began, players didn't have a way to customize their rooms. This was partly due to the fact that Sulake hadn't yet established an in-game currency that would allow the purchase of virtual furniture, which was, at the time, able to be viewed in the, then unusable, furniture catalogue. So, Senior Manager John Hodgens stepped in and brought along the idea of using a traditional currency, the coin. Random outrage ensued and the topic quickly became controversial. Employees were angry with Hodgens, and Hodgens was angry at the employees. During an infamous meeting, dubbed "The Talk of the Coin", Sulake VP Jason Carrillo pulled a gun on Hodgens and shot him 4 times in the chest. A couple attendees of the meeting quickly ran and held Carrillo down until the police showed. By the time help could arrive for Hodgens, he had already experienced a 34% blood loss. At that rate, he was lucky to be alive. He was patched up before being loaded onto a stretcher, and doctors said he had approximately a 95% chance of survivability. But, while being carried down to the ambulance, one of the nurses holding the stretcher lost her grip, causing Hodges to fall to the ground. Dr. Marshal Leville PhD said that "by that time I'd just had enough of Mr. Hodgens. He kept crying, 'Oh, it hurts so bad! Help me!'. He was being very uncooperative and annoying, so I used my foot to push him over to the window, then I broke the glass and kicked him". John Hodgens fell 34 stories out of the Sulake building to his death. Jason Carrillo was charged and found guilty of attempted murder and possession of a gun on company property. He was sentenced to 5 years in the state penetentiary. However, Dr. Marshal Leville PhD was charged and found guilty of 1st Degree murder. She was sentenced to life without parol.
Sulake CEO Ralph Grinot eventually initiated the system of the coin into Habbo in honor of Mr. Hodgens. It wasn't until a few years later that Mr. Grinot publicly stated his feelings of regret toward the Hodgens case, and his feelings toward the coin system: "I am sorry for the loss of Mr. Hodgens, with his idea of the coin, that we soon came to love and appreciate, he made us a ton of money. We get an income of about $6.3 billion a year just on that alone. Imagine how much money we'd be making if Hodgens were still alive filling us with new ideas!" - 2007, NY Times.