| ||
Currency(currency)For exchange rates, see here. A currency is a unit of exchange, facilitating the transfer of goods and services. It is a form of money ,where money is defined as a medium of exchange rather than e.g. a store of value. A currency zone is a countryor region in which a specific currency is the dominant medium of exchange. To facilitate trade between currency zones, there are exchange rates i.e. prices at which currencies (and the goods and services of individual currency zones) canbe exchanged against each other. Typically, each country has given monopoly to a single currency, controlled by a state owned central bank , although exceptions to this rule exist. Several countries can use the same name, each for theirown currency (e.g. Canadian dollars and US dollars), several countries can use the same currency (e.g. the euro ), or a country can declare the currency of another country to be legal tender (e.g. Panama and El Salvador have declared US currency to be legal tender). Each currency typically has one fraction currency, often valued at 1/100 of the main currency: 100 cents = 1 dollar , 100 centimes = 1 franc . Units of 1/10 or 1/1000 are alsocommon, but some currencies do not have any smaller units. Mauritania is theonly remaining country that does not use the decimal system; the only smaller currency unit is the khoum , which equals 1/5 of a ouguiya (UM).
HistoryThe history of currencies follows the history of money closely. Although any form of representationalmoney can be considered currency, the term is typically applied to standardized coinage, and the systems that developed fromit. Prior to the introduction of standard coinage, calculating the value of a metal-based money required several steps. First, themetal was tested on a touchstone to calculate the quality, then it was weighed,and then the two values were multiplied. Thus, if someone alloyed gold and lead (whichwas a common cheating process) the metal's weight was multiplied by the percentage of gold to get the weight of the goldalone. Coinage was introduced to simplify this process. Coins were created of a set weight and gold quality, and then stamped toprove their worth. No measurement was needed, as long as the original values were known. Of course, one could use an alloy withthe same stamp as the coin to cheat, but the stamps were complex and thus difficult to duplicate (at the time). More modern currency systems developed from the introduction of coins. The process started with the replacement of theoriginal metal, with a coin representing it. The gold itself was kept safe in government vaults. Failure to maintain these storesresults in a fiat currency . Examples of this system in the past was the gold standard , where the US Dollar was backed with gold stored at Fort Knox , and the British Pound Sterling , which was backed by one pound of sterling silver at its inception in 1158 in the hands of King Henry II . After WWII , thegold standard was abolished by the Bretton Woods system andmany currencies were pegged to the USD . The evolution continued, first to paper representations of the same standard, and finally to removing the metal altogether -the paper itself is considered to be valuable. In order to prevent forged currency, various technologies such as watermarks are inserted into most paper currencies. In the early 21st century, the use of RFID tagshas been proposed to track bank notes which were illegally obtained. Such efforts have been criticized by privacy advocates. Modern currenciesTo find out which currency is used in a particular country, start at the countries of the world or look at the table of historical exchange rates Nowadays ISO have introduced a system, ISO4217 , using three-letter codes to define currency, in order to remove the confusion that there are dozens of currenciescalled the dollar and many called the franc .Even the pound is used in nearly a dozen different countries,all, of course, with wildly differing values. In general, the three-letter code uses the ISO 3166-1 country code for the first two letters and the first letter of the name of the currency (D fordollar, for instance) as the third letter. The International Monetary Fund uses avariant system when referring to national currencies. Currency namesCurrency names of the world in alphabetic order by currency name:
Privately-issued currenciesSeveral large companies issue points to their customers, to be redeemed for products and services produced by that company.Often, a network of companies will join to share in the offering and redemption ofpoints. While these can hardly be considered stable currency systems, they present many of the same features as "legitimate"currency: they are a store of value, issued in discrete units; they are controlled by a central issuing authority; and they havevarying rates of exchange with other forms of currency. For example, frequent flyer miles canbe bought using U.S. dollars.
Local currenciesIn economics, a local currency is a currency not backed by a national government, and intended to trade only in a small area.Advocates such as Jane Jacobs argue that this enables an economically depressed region to pull itself up, by giving the peopleliving there a medium of exchange that they can use to exchange services and locally-produced goods (In a broader sense, this isthe original purpose of all money.) Opponents of this concept argue that local currency creates a barrier which can interferewith economies of scale and comparative advantage, and that in some cases they can serve as a means of tax evasion. Local currencies can also come into being when there is economic turmoil involving the national currency. An example of thisis the Argentine economic crisis of 2002 in which IOUs issued by local governments quickly took on some of the characteristics oflocal currencies. see: local currency World currencyWith such developments as the Euro allowing for facilitated trade and perhaps acorresponding increase in a wider identity, proposals for a global currency have accelerated, even while it is recognized that several political andeconomic factors would need to be addressed and intermediate steps taken before such a concept might be accepted by the diversenations of the world. Fictional currenciesThere are some fictional currencies used in movies , novels , television series , manga and anime . Some of them are:
Currency signsInternationally, ISO 4217 codes are used instead of currency signs, thoughcurrency signs may be in common use in their respective countries.
When writing currency amounts the location of the sign varies by currency. Many currencies locate it before the amount (eg.£50.00) some after the amount (eg. 50.00 S₣) and before it was abolished, the sign for the PortugueseEscudo and the French Franc was placed in the decimal position (ie. 50$00 or 12F34). Although the definedplacement of the euro sign (€) is that it is placed before the amount, many countries which had their former currency signplaced in other positions are continuing to use the old position with the new currency. See also
External link
curreny, currencies, curency, franc, crurency, republic, currnecy, dollar, currenci, issued, currenyc, gold, curerncy, french, currency, uses, ucrrency, many, crrency, system, , systems, currecy, iso, currenc, letter, currncy, services, urrency, british, currecny, standard This article is completely or partly from Wikipedia - The Free Online Encyclopedia. Original Article. The text on this site is made available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation Licence. We take no responsibility for the content, accuracy and use of this article. Anoca.org Encyclopedia 0.02s |