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Fictional Currency & Imaginary Money


"QUANTUM SHOT" #822
Link - article by Simon Rose




Fascinating Fictional Currency: Money that’s literally out of this world

In these ever tough economic times, we hear lots of talk about how there are no real jobs, how it's hard to make real money, whether we can expect a rise in real incomes and so on. Well, here’s a look at money that doesn’t even pretend to be real.

In the Star Trek universe, Federation credits are mentioned a few times as a unit of currency, but never actually seen. Sometimes it’s inferred that money itself is no longer used in the bright future overseen by the United Federation of Planets. On other occasions, some goods and services are said to cost a certain number of credits, while some alien planets seem to have their own monetary systems. Here’s an artist impression of what Federation currency might look like:


(image credit: David)


Mr. Spock’s home planet of Vulcan is of course a leading member of the Federation. This coin honours Surak, the planet’s legendary peacemaker:


(image credit: ChiefaCoins.com)


In the Star Wars franchise, a standard galactic unit called the Credit is used to oil the wheels of commerce and smooth the path of interplanetary trade. Some of these coins are from the Star Wars version of the Monopoly board game. Designs feature images, names, characters and even alphabets used in the Star Wars universe and it’s implied that some coins bear the language, name and symbols of the planet where they’re minted.



(images credit: 1, 2)


Even Darth Vader himself gets to be portrayed on this version of the currency circulating in the First Galactic Empire:


(image via)


Here are a few more Star Wars coins:


(image credit: TheForce.net)


This fictional banknote was designed for a magazine article entitled The Future of Money. Perhaps $100 may be one of the smallest units of currency at some point in the future? -


(image via)


Hollywood would have us believe that money was also in daily use in the distant past. This is shell money, as used in the Flintstones movie:


(image via)


Here are some coins from the Harry Potter universe, courtesy of Gringotts Bank:


(image credit: Kris van de Sande)


Here’s the reverse sides of the unum (one) silver sickle and unum (one) golden galleon and the obverse of the copper unum (one) knut. These imitation coins from the world of Harry Potter are created for sale to fans and coin collectors (these images copyright Chards, used by permission):


(images credit: Chards, via, used by permission)


From the fantasy world portrayed in Lord of the Rings, these coins are from Mordor (Mordaur), stronghold of the dark lord, Sauron and the location of Mount Doom, where the rings of power were originally forged and where Frodo must take the ring to be destroyed forever:


(image credit: ChiefaCoins.com)


How about these coins from another legendary land, the Kingdom of Atlantis? -


(image credit: ChiefaCoins.com)


Or how about this King Arthur currency? These coins are based on the era Arthur is believed to have inhabited, in the fifth or sixth centuries. Since this was just after the end of Roman rule in Britain, the coin has Latin inscriptions and is in a late Roman style:


(image credit: ChiefaCoins.com)


These coins are designed for the card game Cinque and feature Galileo, Lorenzo de Medici, Romulus and Remus and Bacchus by Michaelangelo:



(image credit: Pxleyes.com)


This was never used in the series itself, but this banknote is still a nice tribute to the cult sixties TV show The Prisoner:


(image via)


Among conspiracy theories in recent times, stories circulated that a new US dollar was to be created, with the existing currency devalued and replaced. No truth to the stories in the end, but it did lead to some interesting creations, such as this one for a design contest:


(image via)


For Dr. Who fans, here’s a banknote inspired by the TV series:


(image credit: Tinna Sze)


And this one features Dr. Who David Tennant himself:


(image via)


And finally, the Land of Penguins is an imaginary country where most of the citizens are indeed penguins. Not exactly sure how they use their flippers to buy and sell using this very nicely designed paper money though? -


(image via)

So there you are. We hope you’ve enjoyed our fearless foray into the fascinating field of fictional currency that truly is out of this world here at Dark Roasted Blend.

Article by Simon Rose and Avi Abrams, Dark Roasted Blend.


ALSO READ: PART TWO ->

ALSO READ: PART ONE ->





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YOUR COMMENTS::

1 Comments:

Blogger Bill Swallow said...

Very nice bit with the fictional money. Only one minor quibble - the Village Currency should be 'Work Units', not 'Dollars'.

"Non-alcoholic whiskey, 24 work units; non-alcoholic vodka, 16 work units. I hope there's nothing indicative about that." No. 6, 'The Chimes of Big Ben'

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