OTU Only: Imperial Currency, and that of other entities

[Spenser TR]

The Empire issues currency both digital and physical; my understanding of this comes from a series of editions and sources. I know in my own game I can do anything I want, but I have a few questions and I’d like to check general canon-ish understanding of Charted Space 1105, if any exists. To wit:

Imperial credits (whatever form) are probably accepted everywhere. It’s probably part of the deal when a world/system/whatever joins the Imperium: your world and the people who take money there have to accept the Imperial credit because of all this trade we’re fostering, and probably as a (yet additional) sign of sovereignty and submission to Imperial will. Is this true, as far as you understand it?

Planetary/system governments can issue their own currency that’s legal tender in their jurisdiction. Is this true?

Can World A accept World B’s currency? Can world A adopt World B’s currency as their own? The Traveller Wiki says yes, and I’d love to know others’ thoughts on this.

Can/do megacorporations issue their own currency? Again, the Wiki says yes Mcorps do issue, but it’s acceptance outside of the corp’s holdings “is a mater of conjecture. Again, what are your thoughts?

Who else (if anyone) besides the Imperium, Mcorps, and individual world governments might issue currency, and what's going on with that?

Thanks in advance...

 

[whartung]

Planetary/system governments can issue their own currency that’s legal tender in their jurisdiction. Is this true?

I would say yes. Simply that there are mechanics to handle the differences in money value based on TL and Starport suggests that there are local currencies that vary against the Imperial Credit. Starport A/TL15 I think is the Imperial Credit benchmark.

Can World A accept World B’s currency? Can world A adopt World B’s currency as their own? The Traveller Wiki says yes, and I’d love to know others’ thoughts on this.

This is an issue of the status of cash vs electronic funds. It's also an issue of locality. If someone showed up on Regina with a cash note from Core, who knows what that might be worth, and whatever it's worth is several months out of date simply due to travel time.

I think the norm would be converting to Imperial Credits before going off world. With an electron funds system, this would happen automatically, and the only time you'd actually run into differences is when you converted you Imperial Credits to a local currency system (which could be physical or, also, electronic).

Governments are very interested in currency inflows and outflows.

Can/do megacorporations issue their own currency? Again, the Wiki says yes Mcorps do issue, but it’s acceptance outside of the corp’s holdings “is a mater of conjecture. Again, what are your thoughts?

Considering the "Company Town" nature of the mega corps, there's no doubt they may issue their own script. It's likely locally accepted in areas bordering heavy presence. An example of this, of all things, was the movie "Catch me if you can", where the character was dressing as a pilot and forging Pan Am checks. The implication was simply that "well, this is Pan Am, so it's good". Pan Am as a corporation had enough renown and gravitas that their "scrip" (i.e. a check with their logo on it) was being accepted without challenge as long as there's a mechanics for easy redemption.

Who else (if anyone) besides the Imperium, Mcorps, and individual world governments might issue currency, and what's going on with that?

Well, today, EVERYONE is issuing "currency". It's just a matter of how many of them are actually fungible and translatable into cash. The biggest example are in game currencies from large video games. But there's also "airplane miles" and other points systems being used in exchange for goods and services. And we won't even delve into the world of cryptocurrencies.

 

[Spenser TR]

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. I should have been more specific in that I'm wondering only about physical currency with my questions, which you addressed. I definitely appreciate the thoughts on the non-physical as well, and that's a huge topic I'd love to get into.

I'm getting my hands around coins and coin-analogs that might have been issued and collectable during "the golden age" for some minutiae I'm writing up.

 

[mike wightman]

Canonical - printed and minted Imperial credits

The Imperium controls all interstellar trade within its "membership" - I would imagine they insist (at the point of a meson cannon) that only Imperial credits are used for interstellar transactions.

Currency, Imperial: The basic unit of legal tender in the Imperium is the lmperial credit.
Individual worlds may issue their own currencies, and those currencies may or may not be acceptable on other worlds.
Similarly, corporations and megacorporations may issue scrip, and its acceptance outside of the corporate environment is a matter of conjecture.
But lmperial credits are accepted everywhere in the Imperium, and in many locations outside of it.

Credit bills are issued in 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1,000, and 10,000 credit denominations. Plastic coins, manufactured in a similar manner in various shapes, are issued in quarter, half, one, and five credit denominations.
lmperial credits can be bulky in large enough quantities. Bills measure 75 mm by 125 mm; one thousand bills stand 50 mm high and weigh 500 grams.

 

[Condottiere]

Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt.[1] Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered ("tendered") in payment of a debt extinguishes the debt. There is no obligation on the creditor to accept the tendered payment, but the act of tendering the payment in legal tender discharges the debt.

In this case, it would be an Imperium court.

What two commercial or governmental entities could make an agreement on is to accept their respective currency as payment, whether directly or through a third party.

 

[Dragoner]

One could also expect to see a fixed exchange rate system, or pegged system, such as planetary currencies pegged to the Imperial Credit.

Fixed exchange rate system - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Enoki]

My solution to this problem was to invent a portable monetary unit that was impossible to forge in the form of a small bar of gold, like a coin, that contained a fictional element that had a long-term decay rate called Organisium. This was an element formed only near things like super novas and neutron stars making it rare to obtain. It has little value outside of its rarity.

The coin, I called a "Sliver," contains a known amount of this element and it is marked on the coin when it was produced, the amount contained, etc. Financial institutions and other entities like government could easily ascertain that a sliver was in fact the genuine article with commonly available scanning devices that would measure the presence of Organisium in the sliver and that could be verified against the data stamped on the coin.

To forge one you'd have to have a source of Organisium, so there is no incentive to try and cheat the system. If you had such a source, it'd be better just to make actual slivers as you'd still be rich.

This gives you a valuable, portable, and unforgeable type of money that is widely known and can easily be verified as real. It would give those running ahead of such systems as banking data moved from system to system a means to bring cash with them in a compact form. I set the value of slivers at 5000 ICR.

This also gives players a money they can use outside imperial space.

 

[Condottiere]

Blockchain.

Therefore, tied to a universal identification.

 

[Condottiere]

One could also expect to see a fixed exchange rate system, or pegged system, such as planetary currencies pegged to the Imperial Credit.

Fixed exchange rate system - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I believe Striker has/had an exchange rate; though I don't think a realistic one.

 

[Dragoner]

Also here: https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-much-us-currency-there-is-in-circulation-2018-4

"In total, there is a total of about $1.5 trillion in U.S. physical currency in circulation ... in the U.S. today, there’s about $14 trillion in total money supply (M2), of which physical currency makes up only about 11% of the total value."

So that tracks in that the US is not super concerned about counterfeiting, one would get arrested, except the crime really isn't worth the time. The net effect on the total economy would be negligible, so one has to balance the effort of making the currency special (cost) vs how much of a real problem it is.

 

[Spenser TR]

So that tracks in that the US is not super concerned about counterfeiting, one would get arrested, except the crime really isn't worth the time. The net effect on the total economy would be negligible, so one has to balance the effort of making the currency special (cost) vs how much of a real problem it is.

As I understand it most counterfeiting of USDs happens outside the country (North Korea comes to mind, for some reason. Hmmmm), as the USD is perfectly suitable in international circles and at the same time adding to the counterfeit "supply" is a kind of act of aggression.

 

[Dragoner]

As I understand it most counterfeiting of USDs happens outside the country (North Korea comes to mind, for some reason. Hmmmm), as the USD is perfectly suitable in international circles and at the same time adding to the counterfeit "supply" is a kind of act of aggression.

Years ago I was at a bar in Tijuana, and someone offered to sell me counterfeit USD, they looked real enough, except no, it was tempting for the novelty factor though. I have heard Fredrick The Great counterfeited Polish coins as well, which damaged their economy, that could have been aggression too.

 

[Condottiere]

Iran being the other suspected culprit; the Germans had planned to flood Britain with counterfeits.

A country can also counterfeit their own currency, by just printing more notes with the same set of serial numbers, and thereby not needing to report the extra printings.

 

[Dragoner]

That is almost what Portugal did https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alves_dos_Reis he's probably one of the more famous counterfeiters.

 

[whartung]

Actually, one of my favorite counterfeiting stories was about a guy that was making fake slot machine tokens. High end slot machines, like $100 per pull.

He had a very special machine that was able to replicate medallions, essentially. Most of these tokens have a specific metal content that the machine can test via a simple circuit, so he had to analyze the tokens to make proper blanks. Then he use the replicating machine to make the dies, and then stamped them out.

The casinos caught on when they suddenly found their supplies of tokens growing. Normally it's a closed system with, if any, a bit of shrinkage as folks take them home as souvenirs. They eventually caught up with the guy with a trunk load full of them in Reno.

 

[Condottiere]

And then there are poker chips.

Though their primary use has more to do with money laundering.

 

[BackworldTraveller]

The largest problem you have with the Imperial currency system is the time it takes to verify that a bank balance that your off-world client says they have to settle your bill actually exists. Interstellar trade needs moveable cash or your travellers need to set up credit lines in advance. Block-chain is only usable if you can verify that the holder has the only copy of the item. It is also (with a couple of exceptions that need reliable quick comms to work) traceable to varying degrees.

Those mega-corps have good credit ratings and never need cash. That trader has never been seen before and must supply cash with order.

 

[Condottiere]

It's either portable cash, or recognized letter of credit.

 

[kilemall]

It's either portable cash, or recognized letter of credit.

That’s how the first checks worked, by the Knights Templar. Encrypted codes only they knew, decrypt worked ok they cashed the checks at a local depository. Huge gain not having to physically carry and guard gold.

 

[Condottiere]

It's where that truism comes from.

If you owe the bank a megabux, you have a problem; if you owe the bank a gigabux, you can always burn down the bank.