Imperial Gold Credit

[trader jim]

what does a gold credit look like?? does it really exist - how big - what can it buy -
what is the average pay for skilled worker - non skilled worker - what is your reference???

 

[lisagb]

A credit is worth about 50p sterling as far as I can see

 

[Uncle Bob]

My best estimate is a Cr was worth about $1 in 1977. That makes it about $3 2002 USD, or 4 Euros, or 1.5J. In 1977 the minimum wage was about $2.50 an hour, or equivalent to 420 Cr/month. A newly graduated engineer made about $20,000 a year, or 1500 Cr/month

So a 1000 Cr/mo job is worth $36,000 a year in 2002. A 3000 Cr/mo job is $108,000 a year, which compares favorably with an airline pilot.

Gold is cheap in Traveller, but I can't find book 2 or 5 right now.

Sovreign 22mm, 8 g gold
Bullion coins (not curency)
1 ounce eagle 32mm, 31 g gold
1/2 ounce eagle 27mm 15.5 g gold
1/4 ou eagle 22mm 7.8 g gold
1/10 ou eagle 16.5mm 3.1 g gold

 

[Antony]

For a short time only, this special offer.

Apply now for a Gold Imperial Express Credit Card or a Platinum Imperial Express Credit Card and you could be in the running for a set of monofilament steak knives...but wait there's more...

 

[justacaveman]

IMTU Gold has no monetary value at all.

Gold is a commonly used metal in electonics and other applications where good conductivity and resistance to corrosion are factors. It also makes a good decorative metal due to it's resistance to corrosion.

Gold is so common because it's a byproduct of the the fuel refining technolgy used in the Imperium. When you process billions of gallons of seawater every day, you're guaranteed to get a "lot" of gold.

 

[Rodina]

Not to mention the 2-5% of asteroids which are nickel-iron and, say, a 100M asteroid would have billions of ounces of gold as an impurity.

No, in Traveller, gold is about as valuable as aluminum. Probably less so.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Surely some one has Book 2? I can't find mine either, but IIRC the "canon" price for gold is 30,000 Cr/ton (this is dirt cheap: the contemporary price is about $9M/ton)

That is 30 Cr/Kg, or 0.03 Cr/gram.

This makes a 1 Cr gold coin with 33 g of gold, or about the size of a thick quarter. Kinda like the gold-colored one pound English coins or the dollar coins used in Canada or the Sacagaweia dollar coins in the US a few years ago. Except real gold, not yellowish pot metal.

This means a gold imperial credit is about the size of two quarters glued together with Strephon's profile on the obverse and the imperial sunburst on the reverse.

 

[PVernon]

Have Book 2 (1977 3rd printing) 1st ed, last page "Trade and Speculation Table" No gold listed! Silver 70,000 cr / ton (2000lb or dton?). Later edition?
Peter v.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Originally posted by PVernon:
Have Book 2 (1977 3rd printing) 1st ed, last page "Trade and Speculation Table" No gold listed! Silver 70,000 cr / ton (2000lb or dton?). Later edition?
Peter v.

Maybe my memory. That will be a 1000 Kg (2200 lb) metric ton.

At 16:1 (a conservative monetary ratio) that will be 1,000,000 Cr/ton, or 1 Cr/g.

So a gold coin the size of a dime is worth 5 Cr, a little smaller than a quarter is 20 Cr. A 1 Cr gold coin will look like a sequin or maybe a Euro with the gold colored center.

 

[hunter]

Credits aren't gold, and are worth about $3US in today's money (by T20 standards). For the most part, Imperial credit notes are rare with most transactions occuring electronically. Basically you carry a 'credit' card

Hunter

 

[Uncle Bob]

At least I got the $3 (USD 2002) right.

IMTU some gold & silver coins are available for trade with low tech worlds and tipping.

 

[Rodina]

Originally posted by hunter:
Credits aren't gold, and are worth about $3US in today's money (by T20 standards). For the most part, Imperial credit notes are rare with most transactions occuring electronically. Basically you carry a 'credit' card

I would think that while Imperial credit notes -are- rare on high tech, high population systems, they are very common outside the Imperial borders as it's one currency which has an easily ascertainable value. Not unlike today, where the dollar is the de facto world currency, most scrip is outside the borders of the United States, but you are more likely to run into a stack of $100 bills in the streets of Belize City, Almaty or Manila than you are in a New York law firm or the United States Treasury Building.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Or the British government stopped minting Soveriegns (1J dime-sized gold coins, about $50 2002 USD) in the 1930s, except for a number minted for SIS to pay agents and spies.

 

[Elliot]

As it happens English special forces soldiers still carry gold sovereigns to bribe/pay off locals. It was one of the ways the Iraqi's were suspicious that captured SAS men were not regulars.

If gold is everywhere what is the 'standard' by which value is judged by? Onnesium? Lanthanum? Zuchai Crystals!? Iridium?

 

[lisagb]

3$US = 1Cr... so that means an average free trader pilot earns $ 18,000 a month!!! $196,000 PA plus gets free board an lodging!! Jeez sign me up!!!

 

[Uncle Bob]

Originally posted by Elliot:
As it happens English special forces soldiers still carry gold sovereigns to bribe/pay off locals. It was one of the ways the Iraqi's were suspicious that captured SAS men were not regulars.

*slap!* I knew that. Duh. Time to re-read Bravo Two Zero

 

[T. Foster]

Originally posted by lisagb:
3$US = 1Cr... so that means an average free trader pilot earns $ 18,000 a month!!! $196,000 PA plus gets free board an lodging!! Jeez sign me up!!!

Bah -- that's only because T20 (and T4) uses the old CT rates that way overpaid starship crews (especially pilots). MT (and TNE) had a much more sensible system:

Bridge Crew: Cr500 times BRN [Basic Rank Number from character generation] plus 10% for each level of Pilot or Navigation or Leader skill.

So your average pilot (rank 0 or 1, skill-1) makes Cr550/month (~$19.8K/yr). Considering that room & board is included, this isn't really all that bad. And It IS possible for a crewmember under MT/TNE to pull down KCr6/month -- you just have to be Command Crew (and a former Admiral...).

 

[Anthony]

Given that a free trader is 30-50 million credits worth of equipment, with routine operating expenses of more than $2MCr/year, I'm not convinced that Cr 72,000 for the pilot _is_ overpaying.

 

[trader jim]

Yeah...us REAL traders gotta think of the bottom line....profits....profits....some ones gotta pay for all this equipment...thats why some people call us GREEDY...I,for one, am just,SLIGHTLY,profit motivated!!!!!

 

[Liam Devlin]

TJ-said-"Yeah...us REAL traders gotta think of the bottom line....profits....profits....some ones gotta pay for all this equipment...thats why some people call us GREEDY...I,for one, am just,SLIGHTLY,profit motivated!!!!!
_________________________________________
A slight understatement, in your case, eh?