Clever lighting.
First off, set your city of the gods underground.
Secondly, replace your gold with sparkelingsparkling jewels the like of which no mortal has seen!
The trick is that the city is dimly lit artificially with high UV content light. The currency gems are highly phospherescentphosphorescent under these low light, high UV conditions but when taken back the surface appear dull and indistinguishable from normal pebbles.