I could see two of them doubling as guitar pics, but not the other four since they're not quite the right shape.
Gold-pressed latinum discussed here: http://www.cointalk.com/t131714/ It is whimsical, of course, and I enjoy that. On a deeper level, you have to ask what forms money will take in the future. A mere hundred years ago, money was precious metal (or paper promises for it). Today, only 8% of our economy is in cash, and the money we do carry is tokenized, an abstraction with no significant material value. The equivalence of matter and energy is not just relativity or quantum mechanics: it takes fuel to lift paper into orbit, abouit $10 per gram (about $4000 per pound: see here). And once in orbit, it takes fuel to move it around. On the one hand, that makes physical money prohibitive, but also gives serious value to anything you do bring off the Earth, such as mementos of history. Every astronaut to the ISS can bring an important (small; lightweight) object to place at their non-religious "shrine" or memorial cranny. Imagine 100 years from now, how a second-generation asteroid miner would perceive a Lincoln cent or a euro.
I toyed with precisely such thoughts this morning, Mike, when this thread popped back up...and went on a bit of a fanciful trip myself on the topic... Once we're dealing with "Galactic Credits", or something of the sort...would we even HAVE a physical representation of them? It seems unlikely, at best. If we consider a "hard" galactic currency, then it seems difficult to imagine a commodity that's equally valued on all worlds...not to mention the difficulty I, at least, would have believing that ANY government of that size could tolerate a hard currency for long. If we think, instead, about a fiat currency, then we have to consider the sole activity that gives it its value...taxation. Would a government of such size, ruling over so many different worlds, be willing or even ABLE to physically store such vast amounts of physical currency? Doubtful. Admittedly, I appreciate the artwork here...which is more than i can say for a vast majority of modern monetary devices...but I doubt logistics would ever allow it to see the light of day. Then again, people in that world can move objects with their mind, and build death stars...so why should what we consider "practical" here and now interfere?
Latinum is Star Trek Universe! Favorite of the Ferengi Alliance. Dabo Tables at Quarks on DS9 in case your interested! Steve P.S. Do not gamble while drinking Blood wine, or Romulan Ale!!
Sorry... a transporter malfunction must have opened a junction... In my October 2009 "Internet Connections" column for The Numismatist, I posted some links to "xenonumismatics" the moneys of fantasy and science fiction. www.truedungeon.com True Adventures, Ltd., builds a two-story D&D in a convention hall. It takes about 45 minutes to think and fight your way through. Coins represent weapons, armor, magic scrolls, potions, and other artifacts and effects. http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Cubit http://archive.propworx.com/search/+sale:1003 +category:Money On the Syfy Channel series Battlestar Galactica the currency units both (coins and notes) are called “cubits.” These creations of the Propworx might be found in the after-markets. The 102nd Ferengi Rule of Acquisition says: “Nature decays, but latinum lasts forever.” You can find bars of gold-pressed latinum as movie props, sold into the collector and fan markets. The Pobjoy Mint produced “Harry Potter” NCLT for the Isle of Man. New Zealand licensed the Pobjoy Mint to produce commemorative coins for the LOTR and also for The Chronicles of Narnia. Energy is always in demand, easy to move, hard to counterfeit, easy to divide, uniform, interchangeable. Metals of any kind seem rare. If you search for "distribution of elements in the ...." and pick solar system, galaxy, etc., you can see evidence that the heavier the element, the rarer it is. Many of the transuranium elements have short half-lifes, so, you would need a containment field of some kind -- a "COINtainment field" I suppose :smile -- but that indicates their desireability. Of course, given transmutation via nuclear processes, it might not make a difference. Or, it might: I mean even if you can make Fermium from Hydrogen, that still takes time and energy, so a kg of Fm might be valuable. Hard to say... Do you agree that Ludwig von Mises's laws of Human Action must necessarily apply to all volitional creatures?
When I was still living with my parents, Rand taught me that lassez-faire capitalism was the only moral economic framework...and the only one I wished to live in. When I was a bit older, Mises taught me why. That answer your question? *heh* That probably falls in the category of something I believe Roddenberry (could have been one of his contemporaries) once said...something to the effect of: "If you were ABLE to replicate an entire fleet of starships, you probably wouldn't NEED to."
