Re: Kemrese Philately

[Padraic Brown <pbrown@nova.umuc.edu>]

On Sat, 18 Jul 1998, Andrew Smith wrote:

> I introduced a friend to Kemr last night.  Being a stamp collecter he
> expressed an interest in keeping me informed on the latest releases from
> the Royal Postal Service.  We had to brainstorm on the price of a stamp and
> concluded that to send a letter within the FK costs a gwleskin.  As you
> have most of the work on Kemrese currency I thought I would check with you
> to what coins and denominations exist in the Kemrese currency.  All I could
> supply was the Llifr, the Sollt, and the Gwleskin.  We think it works in
> sixes and twelves rather than decimal and everyone can hardly wait for when
> the Ewro comes in!

Woo hoo!  Someone else is interested in things monetary!

How precisely does the gwleskin fit in?  Is it half a sollt?  It doesn't
look anything like 'denarius', so I can only assume that it's not a penny.

Indeed the overall system is L/s/d (I believe Carolus Magnus gave us this
nifty system); in the standard proportions 1:20:240.  I think we should
enquire of Iewan ap Iewan as to the overall state of the economy and the
relative value of the money.  It _should_ be higher than *here*, because
there were no devastating 20th century wars to ruin the economy; and I
don't think our colonialism is so extensive so as to ruin the economy when
it eventually collapses! 8-O  I should like to think that the Cambrian
pound might be worth as much as L10 English *here* (I don't know what that
is in NZ$).  This would cause the use of the shilling as the standard unit
and would keep the penny from dipping too low in value.

Assuming a rising price of gold, our unit of choice would probably be the
shilling (and indeed prices and accounts *here* were done up in
shillings), in much the same way as our dollar -- even after gold started
soaring, the dollar remained rather stable.  Just like *here*, there would
still be gold pounds out there, they just won't circulate because of their
being worth more than one pound.

As for the actual types of coins in circulation (currently): 1/2d, 1d, 3d,
6d, 1s, 2 1/2s, 5s.  If the economy allows: 10s, L1.  Others that are
infrequently seen in use: 1 1/2d, 2d, 4d, 18d, 3s, 6s, 10 1/2s, 21s.  You
will note that all of the coins mesh nicely into a nice multiplying
system.  Actually there are two systems, the pound and the 'guinea' (no
Brithenig name yet) which are 20s and 21s each.

The smaller coins (1/2d, 1d, 1 1/2d, 2d & 3d) are copper or bronze.  From
3d and up, silver (unknown purity as of yet) or nickel (if we ever abandon
silver).  For the 10s and 20s coins, gold plated silver (if the gold price
allows), silver (at least for collector sets and the like), or a brass
ring around silver (looks very nice, and is a common practice in the world
these days).  If His Majesty hands out money to certain people of
Castreleon (or other cities) on Maundy Thursday, then there shall be
special Maundy sets of 1 through 6d in silver.

Notes make up the higher ranges: L2, L5, L10; and the rarely seen L20,
L50, L100, L200, L500, L1000, L2000, L5000, L10000, L50000, L100000.  If
you ever see a man in a train headed for Dun Edain from Castreleon wearing
a dark suit and trying to look inconspicuous; he's probably a Bank of
Cambria officer making a transfer to the Royal Bank of Scotland.  He's
probably loaded with L50000 notes; but don't try anything stupid, because
they shoot to kill. ;-)

As for decimal; all England _really_ did in 1969 was to revaluate the
penny and renominate the shilling!  That is, there were 20s to the pound,
there are 20 5p coins to the pound; the shilling was revaluated to 5 new
pence in 1969.  It's six of one half dozen of the other: they've _always_
had a quasidecimal system.  All they did was bring the penny into line.

As for the euro, there's no good reason why Europe should be decimal
anyway.  Germany and Italy were already using L/s/d; France gave it up
during the Revolution, but it could be restored later when the other
revolutionary mumbo-gumbo was swept away (the revolutionary calendar, the
sisteme internationale, spelling reform, etc.)  So the 'euro', if Kemr
ever decides to swap its beutiful coins for bland nonartistic muck, should
probably be a standardisation of the ubiquitious L/s/d.  That only leaves
Spain with its base 8 system and Eastern Europe out.

Have any idea what His Majesty looks like?  A picture?  This should help
visualise the money and the stamps.  Speaking of stamps, the domestic rate
should probably be somewhere in the 6 to 12 penny range; assuming a decent
currency valuation, the post office is a branch of govt., etc.  If the
gwleskin be 6d, then we seem to have come to agreement there.  The foreign
rate should be higher to reflect increasing distance from Cambria.

Who is this new person?  In time, I suppose he could collect Cambrian
stamps. :-)

Padrig.