Currency

[helbent4]

MilGov is in the same fix. Unless I miss my interpretation badly, the government is calling the shots in terms of economics, food distribution, etc. The Joint Chiefs, who led the fight against Communism, are now running a totalitarian regime. They allow local elections, but the real power is in the hands of folks no one elected. If there weren't already plenty to lose sleep over, this would keep the Joint Chiefs up at night.

"You may do everything with bayonets, except sit on them." - Lord Tallyrand, Foreign Minister to Napoleon.

While withholding food or supplies is one way to compel compliance (not to mention using force), it would also generates serious unrest. While one would think that a starving population would be compliant and unrest would be the last thing on their minds, it's really quite common, perhaps because they feel they have little or nothing to lose and no way to meaningfully redress the situation through peaceful means. Especially for Western Europeans and North Americans, who have a living memory of functioning liberal democracy and faced with a de facto or de jure military or civilian despotic regime. I would imagine that the CIA would have a field day destabilising the US military regime since the coup. It's practically their pre-war bread and butter!

Getting back to a currency, obviously barter is a major source of wealth transfer but it has some obvious problems. If you and the other party have what each other wants in the right amounts then it's simple; if you don't, then unless you walk away it gets complicated. You might be forced to make an unadvantageous trade, be stuck with possibly bulky goods you may or may not be able to unload later which you have to store in the mean time, etc.

While it seems counter-intuitive, I think that luxury goods like tobacco would therefore still be produced and traded due to a consistently high value, general portability and ease of storage (at least for small amounts). As well, because drug laws would be impossible to enforce in most areas, marijuana would be grown and traded.

As a rough estimate, I peg tobacco at something like $200/carton, with loose tobacco going at $140/200 grams in gold or equivalent trade. (This is basically a 20x mark-up from pre-war manufacturing prices before taxes/duties in British Columbia of roughly CAD$10.00/carton and $7.00/200 grams for fine-cut tobacco.) Pricing for pot is a little dicier, but I peg that at 5x-10x pre-war value as it's easier to grow than tobacco, so roughly CAD$50/gram (depending on quality, possible law enforcement, the value could be as high as $250/gram etc.) or $175 for an eighth.

Again, I don't see pot/tobacco as being an "official" currency for any faction but where there is no paper or gold, it would be a very useful adjunct for the barter economy. Plus, now players can actually specify something other than gold for their leftover starting allocation! (For those wussy games that start PCs with more than the clothes on their back and a knife in their teeth.)

Tony

[natehale1971]

I used the Military Script as an example of what kind of currency would be made by what ever kind of 'government' was in control. A type of plastic POGs are being used right now by the post and base exchanges in the US Armed Forces.

Military Script is Color-coded and can be of various sizes and even shapes to help keep from having counter-fitters have an easy time with making copies of the currency.

I've been looking for decent images of military script to make props for the game if i ever get to play it again.

[Dog 6]

I used the Military Script as an example of what kind of currency would be made by what ever kind of 'government' was in control. A type of plastic POGs are being used right now by the post and base exchanges in the US Armed Forces.

Military Script is Color-coded and can be of various sizes and even shapes to help keep from having counter-fitters have an easy time with making copies of the currency.

I've been looking for decent images of military script to make props for the game if i ever get to play it again.

I found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militar...nt_Certificate
google images has a ton of good pics you could use.

[pmulcahy11b]

It would be a pain in the butt for the parties involved, but varying the size and/or shape and/or color of currency from time to time without warning might help with counterfeiting.

[helbent4]

Of all places, Cracked.com has an article on this subject:

"7 Bizarre Things (and 1 Bodily Fluid) People Use As Currency"

http://www.cracked.com/article_16709_7-bizarre-things-and-1-bodily-fluid-people-use-as-money.htmlwa_user1=3&wa_user2=Weird+World&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=flashback

Of interest is how bottle caps are used as currency in Cameroon, and how Canadian Tire money is used as a currency across Canada and occasionally the northern USA. One town in Columbia uses cocaine as money, and I believe that drugs will also be used for trading due to its value in many areas of North America and Europe. (For that matter I believe that the drug trade will be alive and well for many reasons.)

During the Great Depression some communities issued their own locally-backed scrip, and of course before then individual banks and companies issued scrip, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip

Bottle caps, while silly-seeming, have the advantage of being relatively rare (now) and not that easy to duplicate. A community might come across a store of them (seizing a local collection or stockpile) and issue them as a local scrip backed by some kind of guarantee. In Morrow Project, a team in one game issued a community scrip backed by Project resources (the contents of a local supply base and the team caches).

Tony

[natehale1971]

It would be a pain in the butt for the parties involved, but varying the size and/or shape and/or color of currency from time to time without warning might help with counterfeiting.

That's exactly what they did during Vietnam... C-Day, they'd pop the exchange on the soldiers so suddenly they didn't know it was coming.

C-days in Vietnam were always classified, never pre-announced. On C-day, soldiers would be restricted to base, preventing GIs from helping Vietnamese civilians--especially local bars, brothels, bar girls and other black market people--from converting old MPC to the newer style MPC. Since Vietnamese were not allowed to convert and frequently lost savings by holding old worthless MPC. Angry over their MPC loss, in retaliation, the nearest U.S. base was often rocketed or mortared the next night.

And it would fit great... especially if they find signs of counterfeiting going on, they'd launch a C-Day much faster. But knowing the military they'd have at least six series of MPC ready to go, just waiting to print the bloody things.

[natehale1971]

I've done a little checking, and with the economic downturn here in the US... there have been communities printing up their own localized scrip (they call coupons) that has been used to stimulate the local economy (used for local exchanges only).

In the T2k world I can see things like this going into effect for those out of the way communities that are able to become moderately self-sufficient. Especially if they are able to work out a form of trade of valuable materials (like gold or other trade goods, like whiskey or tobacco) that can be used with trade with outsiders. Thus the return of local 'Bank Notes' that are directly backed by Gold, Silver, Platinum and jewels...

This gives me an idea for something that would be in Morrow Project team caches.. Project Resource Vouchers that would be backed up with various valuables (medicines, food, gold, silver, whiskey, ect). This would go along way to reestablishing a economy not based directly on bartered trade.

[atiff]

A similar idea to 'community coupons' is the idea of (monetary) 'social credit'. You could do the 'community coupon' idea with no coupons, just with ledgers holding records of exchange. Gives a reason not to boot all the accountants out of your community, too

[Canadian Army]

Canadian Tire money is used as a currency across Canada and occasionally the northern USA.

I known people who accept for services and I know stores; other than Canadian Tire, who accept it as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadia...ts_and_Figures



Thank You Sandy McTire

[natehale1971]

Sounds good.

There is plenty of examples of what could be used for currency. one of the guys i use to game with always joked about us coming across a community that actually used monopoly money (especially since one of the PCs carried his prized possession... a vintage Monopoly game, that the PCs played during 'down times' when we were not RPing their actions) as their currency.

[helbent4]

I known people who accept for services and I know stores; other than Canadian Tire, who accept it as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadia...ts_and_Figures
[/url]

Thank You Sandy McTire

CA,

Not just Canadian businesses. Some American bars across the line will accept Canadian Tire money at par. This is more of a promotional situation, as these or other bars will also accept Canadian money at par (not such a big deal now, of course).

Tony

[natehale1971]

This actually gives me an idea... Does anyone remember about Company Towns (such as with Mining towns) that inspired the song "Sixteen Tons" that deal with 'I owe my Soul to the Company Store'

Could something similar to this work in the T2K universe Not with just a single company, but with all of the stores in a single company. The creation of a currency based on the number of hours you work (or will work). These could be filled out like Checks, that the holder could easily 'cash' by getting the person who filled it out to do said number of hours of work at a community farm, or other endeavor that the community (or private) enterprise is carrying out.

Any idea what we could call something like this form of currency

[pmulcahy11b]

Any idea what we could call something like this form of currency

Credits.

[Canadian Army]

Ithaca HOUR

The Ithaca HOUR is a local currency used in Ithaca, New York and is the oldest and largest local currency system in the United States that is still operating. One Ithaca HOUR is valued at US$10 and is generally recommended to be used as payment for one hour's work, although the rate is negotiable. HOURS are printed on high-quality paper and use faint graphics that would be difficult to reproduce, and each bill is stamped with a serial number, in order to discourage counterfeiting. More can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaca_Hours#Origin

[pmulcahy11b]

Doesn't the Constitution reserve the right to print currency for the federal government