[RFC] Hard Currency?

[Black Aeronaut]

I know we've been around with the issue of currency before, but it suddenly occurred to me...What would the actual, hard currency be like?  Certainly, the fen usually go about their business electronically, but surely there'd be at least some demand for good old coin and paper...  Nix that, we're spacers.  Paper is a fire hazard in space ships, so all we'd have is coin.  (Truth - playing cards on the space shuttle are not made of paper.)
So, that said... what would our currency look like?  Personally, I'm going for human achievements in conquering space such as Gagarin's face with his rocket on the pad in the background, Armstrong's first step on the Moon, and etc.
Thoughts?

[Dartz]

Probably depends on the issuing faction, a bit like the Euro. Each faction would have their own mascots and emblems..... Money in regular use on Mars probably has a picture of Marvin on it. Kandor City might use apollo astronauts. And that's not counting places with mundane influence... Australian stuff probably shows up quite regularly too...
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[robkelk]

Certainly, the fen usually go about their business electronically, but surely there'd be at least some demand for good old coin and paper...  Nix that, we're spacers.  Paper is a fire hazard in space ships, so all we'd have is coin.

Besides, we have more important things to do with paper. (Either pulp or rag - it's all biomass, after all.)

So, that said... what would our currency look like?  Personally, I'm going for human achievements in conquering space such as Gagarin's face with his rocket on the pad in the background, Armstrong's first step on the Moon, and etc.
Thoughts?

I'm agreeing with Dartz that, much like the Euro, every faction that bothers with coin mints its own, and there are thus a large number of designs for each denomination. The Bank of Sol might or might not set a standard obverse for each coin so that everyone knows what it's worth. (I like this idea, but does it fit with the "live and let live" nature of Fenspace?) Reverse images will be all over the map... or the starchart. Hmmmmm...

Must get to work now. More later.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Star Ranger4]

This first came up when we were hashing all this out... I do recall that biomass is a basic standard for currency, which is why 90% of all transactions ARE effectively electronic.

Past that, I... actually like the idea that the fudalistic nature of the Fen means that all the different Banks have their own currencies. And there will be transactions that need to be untraceable, so..

Hmm. 'Paper' currency isnt paper, but a specialist plastic that feels a lot like paper. Its produced by a special strain of plantlife using venus hydrocarbons to create a fairly paperlike material, that will accept a single printing with special inks. after that its permanent. The production of 'bank paper' is the senshi's other primary export, and is therefore one of their most highly guarded state secrets (the other? its the same stuff that can produce Thionite, if you know what your doing)
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Proginoskes]

The (voluntary) interfactional standard currency is the Sol Dollar, correct? The Bank of Sol has a standards document (describing dimensions, mass, material, and edge for each denomination) to which coins must comply in order to be guaranteed universal recognition as S$ tender, and will issue common-side dies to any factional mint that requests them. S$ coins don't have to use the common side, but part of the coin standard requires the coin's value to be clearly visible in arabic numerals on the reverse (the common side is the reverse wherever it is used). Similar rules govern banknotes.

[robkelk]

The (voluntary) interfactional standard currency is the Sol Dollar, correct?

The Solar Credit, yes. It's pegged at parity to the Australia Dollar.

The Bank of Sol has a standards document (describing dimensions, mass, material, and edge for each denomination) to which coins must comply in order to be guaranteed universal recognition as S$ tender, and will issue common-side dies to any factional mint that requests them. S$ coins don't have to use the common side, but part of the coin standard requires the coin's value to be clearly visible in arabic numerals on the reverse (the common side is the reverse wherever it is used). Similar rules govern banknotes.

I'm thinking that the obverse should be the common side. In most countries that issue commemorative coins, the obverse (usually but not always a person's profile) remains constant while the reverse is changed to depict something related to what's being commemorated.

Going with that, here are some suggested common values and obverse profiles (not set in stone):

• $0.01 (do we want to bother with a penny-equivalent as hard currency?)
  
• $0.05: Byron K. Lichtenberg (first private citizen in space)
  
• $0.10: ??not yet named?? (first person on Ganymede)
  
• $0.20: Katz Schrödinger (first Fen in space)
  
• $0.25: Alan Shepard (first to play a game on the Moon)
  
• $0.50: John Glenn (oldest person in space, pre-Wave)
  
• $1: Yuri Gagarin (first person in space)
  
• $2: Valentina Tereshkova (first woman in space)
  
• $5: Neil Armstrong (first person on the Moon)
  
• $10: ??not yet named?? (first person on Mars)
  
• $20: the crew of the Prometheus (first people to reach another star)
  
• $50: Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev, and Vladislav Volkov (only people to die in space, pre-Wave - all other astronaut/cosmonaut fatalities were on the ground or in atmosphere. This one, if it's issued at all by a faction, is specified as being bimetallic with a black-enameled rim)
  

I've listed both $0.20 and $0.25 because some folks will want to use only the small change that ends with a zero (to keep the math easy) while others will want to use the small change that matches US small change (because that's what they're used to).

Assuming we use those, these are the StellviaCorp proof-set currency reverse designs (StellviaCorp uses the Australian Dollar for day-to-day business; these are for the numismatic and tourist markets). Note that not all demoninations are issued:

• $0.10: StellviaCorp logo
  
• $0.50: Fenspace Convention flag
  
• $1: Stellvia station
  
• $5: varies by year, and usually relates to the milestone event for StellviaCorp the previous year
  
• $10: Ad Astra at Kandor City
  
• $50 (first included in the 2013 proof set, which was delayed two months just for this coin): Crystal Osaka
  

--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[LynnInDenver]

I've listed both $0.20 and $0.25 because some folks will want to use only the small change that ends with a zero (to keep the math easy) while others will want to use the small change that matches US small change (because that's what they're used to).

I suspect some would use the $0.20, even when they're more used to 'quarters', just to spite the United States. Others would use it for the math. And some would use it because they're from Australia.
(It was kind of strange, yet neat, to get FIVE games out of a dollar on a video game, the two years I spent in Australia.)
I expect that, even if they tend to not provide coinage in other values, the quarter, regardless of being 0.20 or 0.25, is minted for most installations for the sake of running video arcades, which have proved to be less successful in Fenspace when the machines have been retrofit to use common bank swipe cards.
Jupiter Mining Corporation doesn't really dally with the idea of minting their own currency, since they're not explicitly a tourist operation. But behind closed doors, there has been some talk of making up special 'quarter tokens' for use in the arcade at Green Planetoidy and the main office in Serenity Valley, perhaps with a 'collectible' element tied in with the tenth year of the company's founding.
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor

[Black Aeronaut]

Eh. In Japan they don't have that issue - most games are a pricey 100 Yen a pop. But then again, that is where most of them debut. *Shrugs* Either way, they don't have a 20 or 25 yen denomination - theirs goes 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, and 500 for coin, and then bills go 1000, 5000, 10,000, and 50,000. Very straightforward, very logical.

With this in mind, Ben would probably push for $100 and $500 denominations. As we're going for no 'paper' bills we can do plaques instead - those should look very nice all lined up in a brief case. Suggested forward-faces: Galileo - first to give conclusive scientific proof that the Earth was round and actually circled the sun (and not the other way around), and Sir Isaac Newton - the creation of Newtonian Physics, which are still in use, especially in space.
Roughrider reverse-sides would probably feature ground-breaking devices of astro/aeronautics (no particular order): The Wright Flier,the Bell X-1, the Blackbird, the Concorde, an Apollo rocket on it's pad, the NASA Shuttle Prototype Enterprise, Burt Rutan's Space Ship One, the Hindenburg (her demise aside, her and her sister ships had impeccable safety records), the Heinkel He 178 (first practical jet-propelled aircraft), and last (but certainly not least) Vostok 1.

[Proginoskes]

Eh, I'm not attached to the common side being the reverse. I only said "common == reverse" because that's how the Euro is set up. Given that the side with the smaller-scale image is considered the reverse and all the Euro common sides depict a map of Europe, it's kind of inevitable. If Solar Credit common sides are heads of historical figures, then SC common sides will be the obverse.