The main properties that a currency should have is fungible, durable, portable, recognizable, and stable.
Fungible means that the item has a quality that allows it to be exchanged, substituted, or returned for another thing under the assumption of equivalent value. Basically, everyone needs to like it enough that they'll barter the items they have just to have that item. Example, prisoners like smoking, so tabacco is often the de facto currency in prisons even if they're non smokers.
Durable, portable, and recognizable is pretty self-explanatory.
Stable means that the item supply should be relatively constant over-time so as to avoid inflation (money loses it's value) because of over-abundance or being too valuable because of scarcity.
When you think of currency, you might think of gold, but thanks to over-abundance in the nether dimension, gold loses it's value.
Another great candidate would be diamonds, and tbh, i really don't know why diamonds weren't used for currency. I mean they're more or less just as scarce as emeralds, or at least harder to obtain. One argument would be that diamonds are less fungible than emeralds, the villagers don't have much use for diamonds, then again not like they're gonna use emeralds for anything don't they? Or maybe just because diamonds are more valuable if used as an upgrade to tools and armors?
Another factor is culture. Somebody decided that emeralds is the main currency so now everybody uses emeralds, but who started it and why?
Idk, what do you think?