Our money system has been upgraded to iConomy 5, however the Essentials plugin as per usual conflicts and overrides the /money command. Your current /money balance will currently be incorrect, however do not panic for the original balances are all backed up safely.
The lag issue we have been encountering around Spawn and Sandy Point were infact being caused by the NPCs and thus have been temporarily disabled until the next stable version is released. Chest shops are now working again, however due to the server using the wrong money system (Essentials instead of iConomy) they are still unusable.
Please be patient as we strive to resolve the current problem.
Edit: Please also note that any money gained from now until the /money balances are restored will not be saved.