A currency is a standardisation of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example paper notes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a system of money in common use within a specific environment over time, especially for people in a state. Currencies may act as stores of value and be traded between different governments or private individuals in foreign exchange markets, which determine the relative values of the different currencies. Currencies in this sense are either chosen by users or decreed by governments, and each type has limited boundaries of acceptance; i.e., laws may require a particular unit of account for payments to government agencies.
In the galaxy of the 41st Millennium, the currency of Human-settled worlds consists of whatever objects are a common unit of exchange in a given locale -- government coinage, ephemeral digital ledger-data, ammunition, gold nuggets, or even beautiful shells picked from a beach. The currencies of Mankind are as varied as the worlds of the galaxy they inhabit, and are only measured in some standard unit of account when it comes time to collect the Imperial Tithe.
Imperial Currency[]
The economic systems in existence across Imperial space vary from world to world and their levels of technological progression and so there is no standardised financial system or currency in use across the entire Imperium. On more primitive Feral and Feudal Worlds, there may be no system more complex than bartering or the exchange of a basic, precious metal-based currency.
However, most civilised worlds that have achieved the standard level of Imperial starfaring technology make use of some form of fiat currency for all economic transactions which is often digital or electronic in form. The names of these currencies vary as wildly as the Human cultures that employ them. Some are used only on individual planets or their surrounding sub-sectors, while on others the currency may be accepted on a sector-wide or even multi-sector basis.
For example, the Imperial currency of the Calixis Sector and many of the surrounding regions such as the Koronus Expanse is known as the "Throne Gelt," embodied in the form of metallic coins known simply as "thrones," a reference to the Emperor's Golden Throne. Currency of a similar name had been used as far back as the time of the Horus Heresy in some regions of the Imperium. This currency, like most in the Imperium used across several worlds, is a fiat currency based ultimately on the in-kind value of the local region's Imperial Tithes. There are also precious shell tokens or coins of rare or strategic metals that are accepted as legal tender on all of the civilised Imperial worlds of that sector. Thrones can also be dispersed in electronic form as payment, usually by using a data-slate.
Human reavers and pirates across the frontiers of Imperial space are often refugees or descendants of settlers from the Imperium, and so understand Throne Gelt's value. Of course, to these Renegades, offering currency in trade without a display of force or at least a little bloodletting first is a sign of weakness. Yet some Renegades, dark corsairs and slavers among them, favour hacksilver, items of technology, ammunition, and slaves as currency -- or trapped souls and bottled vitality, if the darkest stories are to be believed.
In the time of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, the most common form of Imperial currency were coins known as "Aquila pieces." They came in various denominations, including a five Aquila piece, which was about the same size as the coins used at present to represent thrones. Aquila pieces were commonly used among the expeditionary fleets of the Great Crusade and were introduced into the worlds they brought to Imperial Compliance for use in interstellar trade.
A currency known as "crowns" were also used at the time of the Great Crusade and were still in use in the 41st Millennium on the Mining World of Karoscura.
On the Hive World of Necromunda, the standard planetary currency is known as the "credit."
The "ducat" is a unit of currency issued by the Navigator houses of the Navis Nobilite in the 41st Millennium that comes in the form of golden coins. They are usable as currency wherever the vessels of the Navis Nobilite go in the galaxy, particularly when carrying out transactions between the houses themselves.
The "Estrillian newmark" was a planetary currency in use on the world of Atraxia in the 41st Millennium. On Atraxia, a tarot deck could cost approximately 27 newmarks.
Xenos Currency[]
Xenos species and empires also have their currencies, though their interpretations of this concept may be remote and strange to Humans. The vile Orks, for example, count wealth in "teef" -- literally the teeth of enemy Greenskins kept for noisy, threatening trade with "dem 'ard gits what got the bitz we needz."
By comparison, the deceitful Aeldari kindreds do not appear to employ any form of monetary currency at all, and are said to find such Human concepts of valuation primitive or debased. Aeldari do value certain items -- particularly the lost artefacts of their species. However, attempting trade with Aeldari of any kindred is a harrowing experience, with the negotiations ever treacherous and shifting.
Perhaps of all the xenos known to Mankind, the nomadic Stryxis have the most "Human" outlook on trade. Though strange to look on, Stryxis caravans offer an often bewildering variety of goods, many perilous and outright prohibited within Imperial space. However, their inscrutable masters drive a hard bargain, and are never to be underestimated.
Sources[]
- Garro (Novel) by James Swallow, Ch. 5
- Dark Heresy: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 124
- Farseer (Novel) by William King, Chs. 1, 5
- Rogue Trader: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 113
- Necromunda: Outlanders Rulebook (Specialty Game), pg. 66
- The Strange Demise of Titus Endor (Short Story) by Dan Abnett