Fictional currency

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Examples of settings using credits:

  • Credits from the famous Sci-Fi movie Total Recall
  • Credits from the The Foundation Series by Asimov.
  • Credits (also Galactic credits) from Doctor Who (in one serial the currency symbol is a "Z" with a line through it).
  • Credits (dataries) from the Star Wars universe.
  • Credits from the Star Trek universe (though they have not been seen in transactions for any large-value items), Batman Beyond, Babylon 5 and multiple other sources.
  • Creds from Judge Dredd.
  • Crabs (Credits Absolute) from the Nyrond universe.
  • CrImps (Credits Imperial, or "Imperial Credits") from the Traveller role-playing game universe.

On the other hand, currency frequently serves as another vehicle to flesh out a story. Examples include:

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, used by Ferengi in the Star Trek universe, is a fictional liquid (which cannot be replicated), stored in gold slips, strips, and bars in standardized amounts.
  • 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.

See also: Everquest#Real world economics

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