List of fictional currencies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fictional currency is currency in works of fiction. It is often invented, bearing little or no resemblance to any modern or historic currency. This is a necessary plot device, in order to increment the completeness of the environment, and at the same time dissociate it from any known economy on earth. A very common type, especially in science fiction, is credits. This is easily recognizable as money, and different from all earthly currency. The use of credits may serve to prevent the reader from inferring a lot of significance to it, e.g. by maintaining lack of depth that may be inherent to a short story, or simply to prevent it from overshadowing more important themes. However, this term would be inappropriate for a work set in a more technologically primitive environment, such as a medieval fantasy novel. Generic money in this genre is typically constructed from one or more precious or semiprecious metals, such as copper, silver, gold, electrum, or even platinum, followed by coins or pieces.

Contents

[edit] List of fictional currencies

Currency frequently serves as another vehicle to flesh out a story.

[edit] Credits

Many futuristic settings settings use credits, including:

[edit] Names adapted from real-world currencies

[edit] Others

  • A-sia from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
  • Aurics in the Domination of the Draka.
  • Beri (Berries) from the anime One Piece.
  • Clams from The Flintstones and B.C..
  • C-bills from the BattleTech Sci-Fi Universe.
  • Crescents in the nation of Calormen in C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia book series.
  • Cubits from Battlestar Galactica. (Although in Galactica 1980 this same currency were inexplicably called "Aurics")
  • Flanian pobble bead from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Not an especially useful currency, as they can only be exchanged for other Flanian pobble beads.
  • Fretzers from Dr Trifulgas: A Fantastic Tale by Jules Verne.
  • Galleons, sickles, and knuts from the Harry Potter series.
  • Grotzits in the Doctor Who serials "The Mysterious Planet" and "Dragonfire".
  • The Grubnick is the currency used in the fictional country of Elbonia created by Scott Adams.
  • Hytes and Kules, believed to be the currency of the Riah colonies, from Gundam 0080.
  • Jan-jan from the movie A Good Man in Africa.
  • Jenny, approximately equal to 0.9 Japanese yen, from Hunter × Hunter.
  • Kalganids from Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov.
  • Kan from Bleach.
  • Marinera, a currency used in Malynera Kingdom from Patalliro! (ja:パタリロ!). Consisted of five subunits, namely Nemarira, Rarinema, Marinera, Maraneri, and Manerari. Preceding units are 100 times more valuable than succeeding units, meaning 1 Nemarira is equal to 100,000,000 Manerari.
  • Monies from Invader Zim (on Planet Irk, Irken Empire).
  • Munny from Kingdom Hearts
  • Nargs in the Doctor Who serial "The Two Doctors", including a 20-narg note, which "can be changed in any of the nine planets".
  • New Yen from William Gibson's Sprawl stories.
  • Nick, from the Left Behind series, named after the antagonist, Nicolae Carpathia.
  • Ningi, a triangular rubber coin six thousand eight hundred miles along each side, from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It is valued at the rate of eight Ningis to one Triganic Pu, but thanks to the Ningi's immense size (almost twice as wide as the Earth's equatorial radius), it is more-or-less impossible to collect enough to own one pu. The inspiration for this may have been the Rai stones of the island of Yap.
  • Ool, from The Dance of Gods series by Mayer Alan Brenner.
  • Ozol from the Alastor series by Jack Vance - see SVU below.
  • Pazoozas (spelling uncertain) in Fractured Fairy Tales
  • Pi virtual currency from the Double T Teds Cartoon Characters as used on TVWorlds Forums*
  • Professorland Funbucks from an Anthology of Interest II episode of Futurama
  • Quatloos from Star Trek (see The Gamesters of Triskelion)
  • Rasbukniks, currency of Lower Slobbovia in Li'l Abner, had literally no value.
  • Solari from the Dune universe.
  • Stellars and minims from Citizen of the Galaxy.
  • SVUs (Standard Value Units) from The Demon Princes by Jack Vance is unusual as a labor-based rather than a commodity-based currency.
  • Tik (iron), agol (bronze), smerduk (silver), and rilk (gold) are the coins of Lankhmar. A diamond-in-amber glulditch is also mentioned.
  • Whuffie, a reputation-based currency from Cory Doctorow's novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.
  • Widgets, from Lego's Bionicle franchise by the Matoran of Metru Nui/Mata Nui though introduced relatively recently in the timeline.
  • Wong, basic currency in the universe of the anime series Outlaw Star.
  • Woolongs (₩) used in the anime Cowboy Bebop.
  • Zeni, currency in the Dragon Ball universe.
  • Zenith, divided into Minims, the currency in the universe of Walter Jon Williams' "Dread Empire's Fall" series. A single Zenith has a considerable purchasing power, comparable to a 19th Century British Pound. Five Zeniths are enough to settle a moderate debt incurred in a card game, a hundred Zeniths are half a year's earnings of an ordinary person, a skilled artist giving personalised service to an aristocrat earns 15 to 20 Zeniths a month, gangsters showing off their money can spend hundreds of Zeniths in a single evening, the freedom of a detainee can be procured from corrupt police for 35 to 200 Zeniths (depending of the prisoner's importance), 3000 Zeniths is a tempting reward for a the head of a wanted criminal or rebel, a small estate could be bought for 9,000 Zeniths, the entire property of a minor noblewoman amounts to about 30,000 Zeniths, 14,000 Zeniths is a bargain price for a ju yao porcelain pot of the Song Dynasty, 80,000 is the price of a surviving Rembrandt painting, 200,000 Zeniths can assure a person of a comfortable lifetime livelihood (though the truly rich big aristocrats have much more). There is no paper money, the Zenith is either a metallic coin even in the high denominations or virtual electronic money in banks.

[edit] Exchange media

These are not currency as such, but rather nonstandard media of exchange used in certain works of fiction.

  • Dirt from Waterworld (Since the world was covered in water, dirt was a valuable thing).
  • Energy, mentioned as a world currency in a "future timeline" by Arthur C. Clarke. It is also used this way in the Alpha Centauri computer game.
  • Latinum, or Gold-Pressed Latinum, used by Ferengi in the Star Trek universe, is a fictional liquid, stored in gold slips, strips, and bars in standardized amounts. Latinum derives its value from being non-replicable by any known existing or predicted replication technology.[1] It should be noted that, as Quark points out in "Who Mourns for Morn?", the gold in Gold-Pressed Latinum is merely a convenient material in which to suspend standardized quantities of Latinum, which, as Rom points out in reply, is somewhat awkward to use as cash due to being a liquid at room temperature and standard pressure. (Compare with events in Venus Equilateral: in one episode, the crew of the titular space station invent similar replication technology, inadvertently creating a solar-system-wide inflation crisis (suddenly anyone can materialize all the cash they want out of thin air at the push of a button), which they then solve in the next episode by developing a substance which cannot be produced by replicators to be used to create non-replicable currency.)
  • The K, or kilocalorie, is based on a human's dietary needs and has become the unit of exchange in Joe Haldeman's novel The Forever War.
  • Masses of the high-energy rare mineral Naqahdah in several grades is used as a galactic currency of sorts in Stargate SG-1. The value of the Prometheus appears to have been a suitcase-sized chest of weapons-grade naqahdah, the most refined kind of naqahdah.
  • Replicator rations are used as currency (mostly by Tom Paris) in Star Trek: Voyager.
  • Water, in the cult-classic Ice Pirates and on Arrakis in the Dune series.

[edit] Fictional currency in games

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Drexler, Doug; & Sternbach, Rick; & Zimmerman, Herman (1998). Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-01563-X. p. 63