Qik
| Qik | |
|---|---|
| 鎰 | |
 Gold lumps, c. 300 CE, in ₳ᶜ2⁄3 denomination | |
| ISO 4217 | |
| Code | ARC |
| Denominations | |
| Subunit | |
| 1000⁄16,512 | 緡 (mjon, "string") |
| 10⁄16,512 | 錢 (dzjon, "mace") |
| 1⁄16,512 | 分 (pjwon, "fraction") |
| Symbol | ₳ᶜ |
| 緡 (mjon, "string") | € |
| 錢 (dzjon, "mace") | ₥ |
| 分 (pjwon, "fraction") | p |
| Banknotes | |
| Freq. used | €1, €5, €10, €50 |
| Rarely used | €100, €500, €1,000, €5,000, €10,000 |
| Coins | |
| Freq. used | 1₥, 5₥, 10₥, 50₥ |
| Rarely used | 1p, 5p |
| Demographics | |
| Date of introduction | 1817 |
| User(s) | Themiclesia |
| Issuance | |
| Central bank | Central Bank of Themiclesia |
| Valuation | |
| Inflation | 2.12% |
| Source | 2016 est. |
The auric catty (鎰, lot, /lət/) is the official currency of Themiclesia. Formerly on the gold standard, it was defined as 24 Themiclesian ounces, or precisely 384 grams or 12.3459 troy ounces, of elemental gold; between Mar. 1st, 1947 and the end of the Bretton Woods system, it was pegged to the OS dollar at the rate of one auric catty to OS$432.10.
The legal sub-units of the auric catty are the tael (兩), 1⁄20 of the auric catty, and the auric pennyweight (銖), 1⁄24 of the tael and 1⁄480 of the auric catty. The latter is not in use as a currency denomination, but units in trade of specie.
Etymology
The catty is a unit of mass derived from one of the Maverican languages, and in Shinasthana is appears as 斤 kjon. Natively, the catty is completely distinct from the auric catty, written 鎰 lot. Both are derivatives of the same basic unit, the Themiclesian tael (兩, ljang), but the catty is 16 taels, while the auric catty is 20 taels. As suggested by its name, the auric catty was exclusively used as a unit to measure the mass of gold and thereby of value in other monetary or liquid instruments.
The mjin (緡, "string"), a piece of string on which coins were fastened, stems very literally from a method of keeping large amounts of coins in more manageable sums: 1,000 were tied onto a string via the hole that coins had at their centres. In some cases, mjon may appear Romanized as meon, mion, mien, men, mon, miun, or mun, representing earlier transliterations or dialects other than the official one.
The dzjan (錢, "mace"), the basic unit of the currency, is derived from the nominal weight of a coin ("one mace"); after 1855, this is no longer mathematically accurate, since the mace was re-valued to be four times the old unit. In 1917, this unit was subsequently revalued to be ten times the current; thus, a post-1917 mace technically represents 40 times the value a pre-1855 mace.
The pjon (分, "candareen"), is a sub-division of the mace and is valued at 1⁄10 of it.
History
As an inherited unit of account from Menghe, the auric catty has survived in that role, if only in name, from the beginning of Themiclesian history. For most of it, the auric catty and the bronze cash were both official currencies in Themiclesia, with exchange rates monitored and periodically altered by government order, but the dropping value of copper and skewed balance of trade in the 19th Century forced the nation recognize the gold standard exclusively in 1817. This state of affairs persisted until Mar. 1st, 1947, when the Septentrion Monetary Fund and World Bank, both created by the Aretton Woods Accords, began operation, and the auric catty was redefined as OS$432.11, or the price of 12.3459 troy oz of elemental gold at the rate of $35 per troy oz offered by the OS treasury. In 1969, after unilateral policies by the OS government undermined international confidence in the stability and value of the OSD, the auric catty was unpegged and allowed to float freely, initially trading at $530 per ₳ᶜ; it remains one of Septentrion's most valuable on a unit-for-unit basis; however, no banknote or coin in circulation is denominated in terms of the auric catty directly, but on its subunits, the mjon and mace. The auric catty remains in use for some accounting purposes, however.
Traditionally, given the concurrent bronze and gold standards, gold coins in specie have been comparatively rare. Due to its lack of resistance to wear and desirability in non-monetary uses, most coins were struck in bronze cash instead, and the conversion of bronze to gold, and vice versa, have been regulated, restricted, and even prohibited in multiple points in history. This article primarily deals with the situation post-1817, when the bronze cash lost its status as currency and became a monetary sub-unit of the auric catty. Gold was chosen over copper in view of its international acceptance and value density in relation to physical size. As the government did not know how much bronze cash was in circulation (coins were never withdrawn and circulated, in theory, as commodity money), the reform of the copper cash was done as a currency re-valuation, whereby all copper cash acquired the value of their physical metal content in gold, which at the time, for a single bronze mace, was 1⁄66,048 of the auric catty. In 1855, as part of a currency reform effort, the mace was revalued a 1⁄16,512 of the auric catty; this process occurred again in 1917, when the mace acquired its present valuation of 10⁄16,512 of the auric catty.
Later in the 19th Century, the lack of a "middle unit" between the cash and the auric catty generated some parliamentary attention. However, paper money issued at various denominations has largely resolved this issue.
Coins
All coins of the auric catty are marked for denomination in Shinasthana and in Tyrannian (by latent text) on the obverse; plain text denomination in Shinasthana and Tyrannian, year of minting, and one of several graphical designs, which may be pictorial or geometric.
| Value | OS$ | Material | Obverse | Reverse | Diameter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1p | $0.03 | 92% Al, 8% Cu | Bird motif, mountains, snow peak, lagoon | Classical "spade currency" relief, text 安定永年 "tranquility and longevity" in spade | 20 mm (0.79 in) |
| The 1p piece is no longer minted regularly | |||||
| 5p | $0.15 | 92% Al, 8% Cu | Seaweed motif, marine fauna, waves | Classical "spade currency" relief, text 平康長樂 "tranquility and longevity" in spade | 20 mm (0.79 in) |
| 1₥ | $0.30 | 89% Cu, 10% Sn, 1% Zn | Divers grains, farmland, irrigation, agriculture | Turtle, mountains, waterflow; wetlands, flora | 27.5 mm (1.08 in) |
| 5₥ | $1.50 | Sail ships, harbour, sea, lighthouse | Whale swimming, clouds, bamboo forest, pandas | ||
| 10₥ | $2.99 | Plug 80% Cu, 20% Ni; ring 95% Cu, 5% Sn | Dragons, phoenices, clouds, moonrise, stars | Map of Themiclesia | 40 mm (1.6 in) |
| 50₥ | $14.95 | Plug 80% Cu, 20% Ni; inner ring Bi; outer ring 95% Cu, 5% Sn | Airport | Albatross flock, clouds, ships with sail, beacon | |
Notes
There are two classes of banknotes issued by the Central Bank of Themiclesia; the more common are the "General Tender" (通貨, t'ong-ghruar) notes that have legal tender status in all transactions, and the lesser-encountered, the "Convertible Tender" (准通貨, drjwon-t'ong-ghruar) notes that are more similar to IOUs by the Central Bank to the bearer. Convertible Tender notes are not legal tender but may be converted into legal tender upon demand at the Central Bank; these are mostly meant for inter-bank or intra-bank transactions in which physically counting and checking each note transferred is impractical or undesirable, or to satisfy laws requiring that a certain amount of money be kept available centrally or at each branch.
All Themiclesian notes since the 1950 revision of the third series possess the following common features: 75% cotton, 25% silk paper; intaglio printing for denomination, issuer, official seals, images, Guilloché patterns, dots for visually impaired; reflective metallic foil strip; watermark; ultraviolet text, images, fibres; infrared text and Guilloché patterns; latent text and images; serial number; visible and ultraviolet microscopic print. Those of denomination €500 and above also possess a very thin layer of silk, woven with special fibres and into patterns with text, around which paper pulp is poured and the substrate formed; these are considerably thicker than notes in lower denominations.
| Value | 2017 OS$ | Colour | Obverse | Reverse | Dimensions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| €1 | $29.91 | Blue | Watermark strawberries, rice paddies | Wooly mammoth, glaciers, mountains, doves, clouds | 8 in × 4 1⁄2 in (203.2 mm × 114.3 mm) |
| €5 | $149.54 | Aqua | Watermark oranges, digital circuitry, vacuum tubes | Intaglio Homo erectus, Felix catus, fish, fire, flora, cave, crystals, stars in the night sky | 8 1⁄4 in × 4 3⁄8 in (209.6 mm × 111.1 mm) |
| €10 | $299.08 | Gold | Watermark canteloupe, library, desks, lamps, readers | Tropical forest, angiosperm, gymnosperm, tetrapod, creek, eels | 8 1⁄2 in × 4 1⁄2 in (215.9 mm × 114.3 mm) |
| €50 | $1,495.39 | Teal | Watermark peaches, microscope, image close-up, scientists, books | Plesiosaur, benthos, echinoderms, sauropods, flora | 8 3⁄4 in × 4 5⁄8 in (222.3 mm × 117.5 mm) |
| €100 | $2,990.77 | Red | Watermark mangosteen, Advanced Synchotron Collider, scientists | Synapsids, other amniotes, ferms | 9 in × 4 3⁄4 in (228.6 mm × 120.7 mm) |
| €500 | $14,953.85 | Crimson | Watermark pears, bronze vessels | Trilobites, placoderms, amphibians, scale trees, volcanoes | 9 1⁄4 in × 4 7⁄8 in (235.0 mm × 123.8 mm) |
| Notes below are Convertible Tender, not intended for circulation and are not legal tender anywhere except at the Central Bank of Themiclesia. | |||||
| €1,000 | $29,907.70 | Crimson | Watermark watermelons, ancient land survey | Ediacaran biota, flat worms | 9 1⁄2 in × 5 in (241.3 mm × 127.0 mm) |
| €5,000 | $149,538.52 | Crimson | Watermark plums, ancient policians at court | Cnidarians, Ctenophora, Acoelomorpha | 9 3⁄4 in × 5 1⁄8 in (247.7 mm × 130.2 mm) |
| €10,000 | $299,077.03 | Crimson | Watermark taro, ancient astronomical observation | Porifera | 10 in × 5 1⁄4 in (254.0 mm × 133.4 mm) |
Size issue
When printed in the first half of the 20th Century, Themiclesian banknotes in normal circulation were larger than notes from some states but not the largest ever printed. However, since the Organized States pioneered the printing of small notes (5 1⁄2 in × 2 5⁄8 in (140 mm × 67 mm)), Themiclesian notes appeared much larger by physical dimensions than those from other states, many of which followed the lead of the Organized States. In the OS, large (7 1⁄2 in × 3 3⁄4 in (191 mm × 95 mm)) notes were in circulation with smaller ones until the 1950s, and Themiclesian notes (starting at 8 in × 4 1⁄4 in (200 mm × 110 mm)) were not outlandishly large compared to contemporaries until then. By the 1960s, the Themiclesian Central Bank prepared to shink its notes, but the political and economic uncertainty in the 1960s, then economic stagnation in the 1970s, required the Central Bank to shift its focus elsewhere, which left the notes unchanged for the following decades. By the 90s, Themiclesia was one of very few states still issuing "large size" notes, which sometimes failed to fit into slimmer/shorter wallets.
At this point, the Union of Wallet Makers in Themiclesia lobbied heavily against shrinking the banknotes, which served, in effect, as a barrier to entry for foreign wallet manufacturers. The Central Bank itself was disinclined to reduce the size of notes as well, stating that shrinking the notes would require a complete replacement of almost all printing apparatus in the Mint, as well as the obsolescence of a large variety of banknote-counting machines already in use in private and public institutions. As such, the fourth series, which began to circulate in 2000, retained their original size, much to the chagrin of tourists.
Previous issues
| Series | Issuer(s)/Theme(s) | Issue/Revisions | Denominations | Stopped issuing | Demonetized | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | Coastal Bank Mercantile Bank |
1817, '54, '61 | Notes: €1, €5, €10, €50, €100 Coins: ¼p ⅓p ½p 1p, 2p, 5p, 1₥, 5₥, 10₥, 20₥, 50₥ |
1872(?) | 1950 | |
| II | C&C Bank: ships CMC Bank: plants |
1870, '80, '95 | Notes: €1, €5, €10, €50, €100, €500, €1,000, €5,000, €10,000 Coins: ⅓p ½p 1p, 5p, 1₥, 5₥, 10₥, 50₥ |
1913 | 1950 | |
| III | CBT: central bank building | 1917, '30, '48, '63, '80, '98 | Notes: €1, €5, €10, €50, €100, €500, €1,000, €5,000, €10,000 Coins: 1p, 5p, 1₥, 5₥, 10₥, 50₥ |
2007 | Circulating | |
| IV | CBT: prehistoric life | 2003, '17 | Notes: €1, €5, €10, €50, €100, €500, €1,000, €5,000, €10,000 Coins: 1₥, 5₥, 10₥, 50₥ |
Current | Circulating |
Counterfeiting
Debasement and clipping
Themiclesian currency has been subject to debasement and clipping since antiquity. When the value of the coin was supposedly linked to the amount of metal used to make it, lightening the coin by removing some of its metal content (called "clipping") resulted in reduced desirability; carried to the extreme, this led to such difficulties while trading that coins ceased to be liquid at all, even valued for metal content only. Currency made with precious metals were subject to a different measure, debasement, which is the adulteration of precious metal with a less valuable one, usually done without disturbing the mass of the piece to avoid easy detection. While chipping results in lightened currency that may still be accepted due government fiat declaring all recognizable coins to be equal in value, merchants are much less likely to do so for precious metals. Testing for debasement is generally much more difficult than chipping.
Forgery
In the modern age, clipping is no longer common as a measure to extract metal from coins; nor is debasement, since precious metals are no longer found in circulating currency. Forgery of banknotes have assumed the vast majority of counterfeit currency, by piece and by value, in modern Themiclesia. The notes of the highest denominations, €1,000, €5,000, and €10,000 are rarely subject to forgery, since they are only legal tender at the Central Bank, which maintains special authenticating measures that are not disclosed to the public for these notes. The €500 and €100 notes, though legal tender, are likewise unpopular targets, since their large value again prompts merchants to examine each note much more carefully. Most counterfeit notes are €10, €5, and €1 notes, which account for around 99.2% of all circulating notes.
In the late 1990s, it was revealed that Themiclesian notes of the €100 and €500 denominations have been subject to particularly concentrated efforts at counterfeiting. This situation may have escaped notice for several years due to the convoluted way in which the fraudulent money was exchanged. After extensive investigation by the Yugoslovenski authorities, various criminal associations based in Yugoslovenski have been producing counterfeit €100 and €500 notes in very remote places and then exporting them to the Organized States to exchange into the OS Dollar, and then subsequently converted into Yugoslovenski's Dinar. The OS authorities did not notice these irregularities initially, due to the relative rarity of the €100 and €500 denominations, which meant forgeries were not as easily discerned. By 1998, around €1,220,000 (approx. $35 million OSD) in counterfeit had been exchanged at various small-scale currency exchange operations or remote bank branches, and a roughly equal amount has been withdrawn from the Yugoslovenski treasury. This operation, along with several others, eventually prompted the Central Bank of Themiclesia to issue new notes in 2003, with additional security features that addressed most of the weaknesses that allowed the Yugoslovenski forgeries to transpire.
High-denomination issues
While it is technically illegal to refuse a large-denomination note that is legal tender, courts have been lenient on sellers if the note offered was unreasonably high-valued for a small purchase, or when the purchaser refuses to use more friendly denominations, if any he had. In addition, courts have also accepted that if the merchant did not have sufficient cash on hand to produce change for a given payment, then the transaction can be cancelled without any penalty to either party. These decisions have caused a considerable share of small vendors to refuse notes above a given denomination (e.g. €10), to avoid receiving highly-valued counterfeit notes at great cost; when reported with the police, policemen have been known to guide the purchaser to a nearby bank to exchange for lower denominations.
Some experts have assessed the lingering presence of €10,000 to €500 notes "a relic of a non-digital era", when transporting large amounts of banknotes would have been more common, and higher denominations between two trusted parties would have made transactions more manageable. Not all of them agree that these denominations should be demonetized; some state that such notes are so rare, that counterfeiting is a non-issue in casual transactions, in which counterfeit notes, except the most sophisticated ones, mostly circulate. The historical interpretation gains credence when these notes are measured: their large size meant they fit better in a folder or suitcase than wallet, probably indicating that the Central Bank never meant for them to stay in one.