Imperial Currency
|
This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, spelling or expresses concepts from an out-of-game perspective. This article should be corrected and/or re-worded using the in-game point of view.
|
The basic unit of legal tender in the Imperium is the Imperial 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 Imperial credits are accepted everywhere in the Imperium and in many locations outside of it.
Imperial credits are almost impossible to counterfeit because of their unique method of manufacture. Plastic fibers are combined under high temperature and pressure and extruded as a rectangular bundle of great length. The different colored fibers form the pattern of the bill. It is not printed on but actually made a part of the structure of the note. The bundle is sliced to paper thinness, and a 14-digit alphanumeric (letter/number combination) is added for uniqueness. Credit bills are issued in 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000, 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. The larger coins are often called the "kilo", the "ton", the "toi", the "low passage" and the "high passage", to reflect their value.
Imperial credits can be bulky in large enough quantities. Bills measure 75 millimeters x 125 millimeters; 1000 bills stand 50 millimeters high and weigh 500 grams.
The Imperial credit itself is backed by the Imperial and Subsidiary Fleet, or (to be precise) its transport capacity. One credit is equal to the cost of transporting one metric gram through one jump. This has made the Imperial credit safe from the economic effects of inflation and deflation for over a thousand years.
Megatraveller and The New Era
Imperial credits are still legal tender in the Domain of Deneb and its successor the Regency; their acceptance in other areas of the divided Imperium varied widely during the Rebellion and the financial system collapsed after Virus on most worlds. Several pocket empires like the Reformation Coalition began minting their own credit based on transport capacity, but most worlds still use a local currency backed by their own industrial production or even rare metals.
Hard Times
In the Hard Times era (1125+), specie (coins made of metal) became more valuable than scrip ("folding money" made of paper or plastic fiber). The Outworlds use coins made of standard metals.
| Metal | Mass | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Copper | 50 grams | 0.2 Cr |
| Silver | 30 grams | 10 Cr |
| Gold | 30 grams | 300 Cr |
These coins are available for a 2% surcharge from Outworld customs currency exchange counters. They are recognized on all Frontier worlds and are available for direct exchange half of the time. Safe worlds sometimes accept coins for their scrap metal value but merchants usually do not recognize them as currency.
Banking
Within the Imperium, banks exist only as deposit accounts, safety deposit boxes and investment groups, requiring an in-person visit to the same, or nearby, branch every time.
This results in an essentially cash-only economy, though local banks may provide electronic banking services on an intra-planetary level or within a single star system.
Interstellar banking has not proven feasible without faster-than-light data communications, at least not in the sense that banking was understood on ancient Terra. There are factors preventing this:
- In the absence of near-instant faster-than-light data communication, there is no way for a local trader to accurately assess a balance in a distant account at any given time and no way to quickly transfer money to distant accounts. Archaic methods of electronic funds transfer such as direct deposit, direct debit and wire transfers do not work.
- Local time does not synchronize with distant time. Time is only constant locally; time may pass faster or slower at a distant bank, relatively speaking. Therefore it is virtually impossible to enforce expiry dates on credit guarantees, and unwise to assume that a distant financial institution is still liquid, if indeed it still exists. Cheques and credit cards (in their old Terran forms) cannot function. See also Imperial_Bureaucracy#Offices of the Emperor with regard to the Office of Calendar Compliance.
- Data encryption is problematic. Certainly by the time of The New Era, data encryption had become essentially worthless for financial purposes, and therefore one could not rely on some method of portable money transfer device similar to the old Terran prepaid debit cards since there would be no way of electronically authenticating either the user or the sum available. Essentially, widespread quantum computing negates data encryption. See the discussion under Talk:Imperial_Currency#Banking .
Imperial Standard Credit Card This card is effectively a portable bank teller. A microprocessor unit tracks the account and contains information for personal identification. Made of plas-steel, the card is practically indestructible. It is nearly tamper-proof, in that most attempts to tamper with it merely result in blanking the card.
Merchants in systems with a technology level of 13 and higher accept this card. It may be used in any Imperial starport to get Imperial credits, local currency or debit cards drawn on local banks if local technology supports it. Identification information consists of a thumbprint activator and a record of the owner's retina print. The latter is checked for verification on all transactions over Cr100,000.
Only the very wealthy may obtain the Iridium Edition of the card. It contains the owner's DNA code, allowing for positive identification and unlimited reliability. Starships have been purchased on these cards.