Re: OT: coins and currency

Random thoughts ...

Hrm, all that talking about money and con-money makes me
think about how I should name the currencies of the LAN and
Tarsyania. Probably _Megelang_ (0.518 kg => Pound) and
_Sin_, _Sinang_ /si.nA~/ or _Sinongh_ /si.nO~:/? Both might
have abolished the _Crown_ after the Revolution mentioned in
the Tarsyanian grammar. I haven't yet typed up enough to know
how Tarsyanian derives nouns from adjectives (TAR _sin_ <
AYR _sino_, "free"). _Sinang_ would be more correct than
_Sinongh_, though, since _sinang_ derives from AYR _sinan_
which ought to mean 'freedom' (or more specifically 'the
concept of being free', an irreal noun thus). Since both
languages are intended to be closely related (but not
derived from one another), that should be OK. For the sake
of simplicity, I could abbreviate those two currencies _A£_
and _T$_, _:mg_ and _:sn_. The sub-units should be called
_civeng_ (smaller) resp. _kjeng_ /k_jE~/ (sub-, less),
supposedly abbreviated _:cv_ and _:kj_.

What would be the best divisions when your culture is
counting in dozens? I don't like the old British three-unit
system either because it's rather complicated if you're not
used to counting in dozens and scores, so I would go for two
units like Dollar/Cent, Pound/Pence and what have you. And
not weird amounts like in Harry Potter, 29 Sickles = 1
Galleon or so ... although the measurements I have made up
for lengths and weights are similarly irregular. After
severeal hours (!) of try-and-error with odd values due to
equal divisions of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/100, I
decided to boringly copy the Euro, but with 60, 6, 0.60 and
0.06 instead of the same with fives because of duodecimal
counting. No paper money yet -- all these are *coins* of
various common metals (gold, silver, bronze, copper, zinc,
nickel): 100, 60, 20, 10, 6, 2, 1, 0.60, 0.20, 0.10, 0.06,
0.02, 0.01 ... I know that the division of the Euro is not
ideal according to Tom Chappell's recent message, but it's
easy to deal with. Given a rate of US$ 1 = A£ 0.31 and = T$
0.65 (in decimal) ... A£/T$ 0.01 have at least *some*
worth!! You could have fun with PHP and generate exchange
courses :-) Has anyone done something like that? Heh, you
must even consider con-in- and -deflation rates ;-)

I wonder where the names for the Bolivian _Bolivar_ and the
Brazilian _Real_ come from. As for Bolivar, is the name just
derived from the country's name?

Cheers,
Carsten Becker

--
Keywords: con-culture, money

"Miranayam cepauarà naranoaris."
(Calvin nay Hobbes)

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