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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.

[edit] List of fictional currencies

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

[edit] Credits

Many futuristic settings use credits, including:

• The movie Total Recall
• The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov.
• Doctor Who (sometimes specified as Galactic credits). In one serial the currency symbol is a Ƶ. A conversion ratio is mentioned in the episode "Voyage of the Damned": 1,000,000 pounds is equal to that of 50,000,056 credits.
• The Star Wars universe: see dataries.
• The Star Trek universe – though credits have not been seen in transactions for any large-value items. See Federation credit.
• The space trading computer game Elite
• Batman Beyond
• Babylon 5.
• Perimeter 2. The US dollar in the video game Perimeter 2 is denoted with the symbol similar to the American dollar sign ($), however, in the game, it is worth approximately as much as a Vietnamese dong, 6 x 10^-5 US dollars.
• F-Zero video games and anime. A space credit, written with a symbol identical to a dollar sign ($), seems to be approximately equal to one Japanese yen, or about 0.8¢ US.
• Judge Dredd ("creds").
• The Traveller role-playing game universe: CrImps, i.e. Credits Imperial, or "Imperial Credits".
• The Galactic civilizations depicted in many Andre Norton books.
• The space-faring 1964 alternate history timeline of Fredric Brown's "What Mad Universe", abbreviated to "Cr.", with one Credit (a worldwide currency) having the purchasing power of about 10 American cents in our timeline.
• The interstellar civiliazrion of A. Bertram Chandler's books uses both Credits (2000-2500 Credits pay for a ticket on a spaceship across many light-years' distance), and Dollars (lucky spacemen and spacewomen who did a major salvage job can get several million Dollars, which are enough to buy second-hand a spaceship of their own).
• In the TV series Firefly and it's follow on movie Serenity, credits are used by the more 'civilised' inner planets, while the out worlds use Platinum coinage.

[edit] Names adapted from real-world currencies

• Air Dollars, used by the international association of pilots and technicians from which a world state develops in H.G. Wells' "The Shape of Things to Come" (1934). "The air-dollar was not a metallic coin at all; it was a series of paper notes, which represented distance, weight, bulk, and speed. Each note was good for so many kilograms in so much space, for so many kilometres at such a pace. The value of an air-dollar had settled down roughly to a cubic metre weighing ten kilograms and travelling two hundred kilometres at a hundred kilometres an hour" (see^[1]).
• Altairian dollars from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (in the TV series the currency symbol is a lower case "a" with a line through it).
• Ankh-Morpork dollars (A$) and pence from Discworld novels.
• Bison Dollars from the movie Street Fighter.
• Crowns from the Inheritance Trilogy book series.
• Dollarpounds ($£) and pennycents (p¢) from Red Dwarf.
• Dolleryen ($¥) from Gunbuster. The currency with the same name is also used in The Most Irresponsible Man in Space light novel series.
• $$ or Double Dollars from Trigun.
• Ecu from Zero no Tsukaima.
• The Fuseodollar is the basic currency unit of the Commonwealth in Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy.
• Kongbucks (Hong Kong dollars) in Snow Crash – arguably not fictional.
• Hong Kong Luna Dollar, the hard currency used in Luna in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein.
• Marks from Pern. The Mark is also the currency of the planet Barrayar in the Vorkosigan Saga.
• New Yen from William Gibson's Sprawl stories.
• Nuyen in the Shadowrun roleplaying game, based on the above.
• Piastras were used in many of the comics of Spanish Editorial Bruguera during the Franco era. Using an undetermined foreign currency instead of pesetas allowed more leeway against the censorship.
• Ptas "Resident Evil 4", most likely derived from the Spanish Peso since the game takes place in Spain.
• Sens in Fullmetal Alchemist (technically not fictional, the sen being a former subdivision of the yen)
• Sequins are the Martian unit of currency in Kim Stanley Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars series, as well as on Tschai (Planet of Aventure) by Jack Vance, where they are made from the roots of a plant that concentrates certain minerals.
• Space bucks in Spaceballs.
• The actually-existing Swiss Franc has a great fictional future in the loosely-linked stories included in Jerry Pournelle's "High Justice" (1974). The Swiss currency becomes a worldwide, and afterwards a Solar System-wide, medium of exchange (especially in the Asteroid Belt, where much of the action takes place).
• Yen-Euro-Dollars (¥€$), pronounced as "yes", from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

[edit] Others

• A-sia from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
• Aurics in the Domination of 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. In Galactica 1980, cubits were revealed to be made from "Auric" - Gold.
• Days from the Terry Pratchett novel Strata. One day is the amount of money that will buy you the rejuvenation treatment needed to increase your lifespan by one day.
• 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".
• Gil from Final Fantasy 7 by Square-Enix.
• 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.
• Khor, currency of Syldavia, in The Adventures of Tintin.
• 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).
• Nargs in the Doctor Who serial "The Two Doctors", including a 20-narg note, which "can be changed in any of the nine planets".
• 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*
• Pisotas from the "Planet of Da Eyps" in Funny Komiks.
• 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.
• Septim, Currency of tamreil in the elder scrolls game universe.
• 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, bars and bricks in standardized amounts. Latinum derives its value from being non-replicable by any known existing or predicted replication technology.^[2] 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

• Adena from Lineage.
• Alz from Cabal Online.
• Bell from Animal Crossing and GiFTPiA.
• Baum (currency symbol is an U crossed by one or two lines) from Alex Kidd in Miracle World and Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.
• Blingz from the Bratz video games.
• Bolgs: lead coins minted by trolls in Runequest's world of Glorantha.
• Bolts from the Ratchet & Clank series. Also used in Mega Man 7 and onward.
• Bottle caps from Fallout.
• Bounty in Too Human.
• Buckazoids from Space Quest.
• Coins from the Mario video game series, called Koopabits in the short-lived comic books based on the games. Also used in several other games.
• cR a monetary unit used by the United Nations Space Command in the Halo franchise.
• Credits are used in a number of games (mostly Sci-Fi and Space Adventure games). The name may also vary in spelling and region ("Inter Stellar Kredits / ISK" in EVE Online, for example).
• Club Penguin Coins
• Dagols from Radiata Stories.
• Denars from Mount&Blade. Technically based on Roman denarii (gold coins, often used in the Middle Ages).
• Dil from 2Moons.
• Dotori (Korean for Acorns) is used in the social-network site Cyworld to buy decorations and music for individual user pages.
• Drebin Points (DP) from Metal Gear Solid 4.
• Dragon Power (DP) from Mother 3.
• Ferg, used in the text adventure Jinxter. Only 1- and 2-ferg coins appear in the actual game.
• Filari from Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle.
• Fol, used in the Star Ocean series and Infinite Undiscovery
• Funds from the "Advanced Wars" gameboy series.
• G, GC, or GP, currency used in many computer role-playing games. Acronyms for Gold/Golds (Faxanadu), Gold Coins, and Gold Pieces.
• Gald from Tales of Phantasia and the various other Namco Tales series games.
• Gella from the Wild Arms series.
• Geon in the Korean online game KAL-Online.
• Gil from some games in the Final Fantasy series.
• Gilda from the Dark Cloud series.
• Goth from the Ogre Battle series.
• Guilders from Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle (a real currency formerly bore this name).
• Hell (HL) from the Disgaea series.
• Influence and Infamy, from City of Heroes and City of Villains, respectively.
• Inter Stellar Kredits (ISK) from EVE Online.
• Ka-ching from Patapon.
• Keros from SaGa 2
• Jellybeans and Tickets from Disney's Toontown Online.
• Lucre from the Seiken Densetsu series./* Fictional currency in games */ Also, used in Sword of Mana
• Linden Dollars (Represented commonly as L$) from Second Life (See also Economy of Second Life).
• Lunars: Silver coins minted most notably by the Lunar Empire in Runequest's world of Glorantha.
• Meat from Kingdom of Loathing, in the form of slabs "dropped" by monsters.
• Meseta from the Phantasy Star series.
• Mesos from MapleStory.
• Mito from Drift City.
• Monetari from Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle.
• Moolah in the Oddworld series and Chibi-Robo!.
• Munny from Kingdom Hearts.
• Neopoints, or NP from the Neopets web site. Also VirtuCreds was the supposed currency of Dr. Sloth's "VirtuPets".
• Nanites from System Shock 2.
• Notes of various pitches, as well as privately-defined currencies such as crops and chits, in Agora Nomic.
• Nuyen, in the Shadowrun RPG is the 21st-century corporate standard of international exchange. An homage to the works of William Gibson (see 'New Yen', above).
• Obsidian coins from Ultima VIII.
• Oth is used by humans in the Valkyrie Profile series. Gods use "Materialize Points".
• Oz, or possibly ounces of gold, from the futuristic work in progress game Cortex Command.
• PED (Project Entropia Dollar), from Entropia Universe
• Pang, from Pangya or Albatross18.
• Pearls, used on the black market in Beyond Good & Evil.
• (Poké Dollar) from the Pokémon series.
• Pokos from the Pikmin series.
• Potch, from the Suikoden series.
• Pyreals, from the Asheron's Call series.
• Resource Units ("RUs") and Interstar Credits ("Credits"), from Star Control II.
• Rings, from the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. These did not have actual monetary value until Sonic Advance, where they could be used to buy items for the player's Chao.
• Rupees from the The Legend of Zelda universe. A real currency also bears this name.
• Scarabs from Star Fox Adventures
• Septims (also drakes) from The Elder Scrolls series.
• Simoleons from SimCity, The Sims and other similar computer games. Often written with the § symbol.
• Sovereigns from Knights of Xentar.
• SPI from Space Cowboy Online is the currency used to buy new parts for your Gear as well as new skills and other things.
• Taters and Spider Webs from Cartoon Network Block Party.
• Tokkul,an obsidian coin used in RuneScape by the Tzhaar
• Trading Sticks are the curreny of Karamja in RuneScape
• Uroch in Steambot Chronicles.
• Warl, from Trapt.
• Zehn, currency in Rogue Galaxy.
• Zeny, currency in the Ragnarok Online MMORPG.
• Zenny, used in certain Capcom video games such as Breath of Fire or Megaman Battle Network.
• Zorkmids from the Zork series of interactive fiction; also used in NetHack.
• Zulie, currency used in the Rose Online MMORPG. A Z with two vertical lines through it.

[edit] See also

• EverQuest#Sale of in-game objects/real world economics

[edit] References

1. ^ http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/wells/hg/w45th/chapter30.html
2. ^ Drexler, Doug; & Sternbach, Rick; & Zimmerman, Herman (1998). Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-01563-X. p. 63