What denominations of Latinum would make sense?

[Kamen Rider Blade]

After thinking about the denominations of Gold Pressed Latinum and watching EC Henry's video on Gold Pressed Latinum, the break down of Denominations doesn't seem to make sense to me.

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Why is so much Gold used to contain so little Latinum?

Wouldn't using modern 24th century technology to create a ultra tough pocketable coin be the better solution than carrying a physical brick of gold?

A current day standard Brick of Gold weighs 12.4 kg or 27.4 lbs.
So why on earth would you use that much pointless and worthless gold to contain so little Latinum?

Hypothetically, if the UFP were to create their own denominations of Latinum to deal with the Ferengi and all other Alien races that use Latinum as a intermediate form of currency, what denomination should they use or create?

It seems REALLY dumb to use that much mass to carry so little Latinum when ~ 10 ml in that tiny shot glass that Morn spit into is worth 100 Bricks. That works out to be ~ 0.1 ml = 1 Brick.

Water on Earth is approximately:
1 cc = 1ml = 1g

Considering some formulations of liquid metal on earth are measured in #.## g/cm³.
e.g. <This paper presents a weight-changing device based on the transfer of mass. We chose liquid metal (Ga-In-Tin eutectic) and a bi-directional pump to control the mass that is injected into or removed from a target object. The liquid metal has a density of 6.44g/cm³, which is about six times heavier than water, and is thus suitable for effective mass transfer.>

If we're going to have the UFP create currency, with small hand held and pocketable currency, why not use the advanced replicators to create a coin shape that can hold the small amounts of Liquid Metal Latinum in small physical amounts that make sense in reasonable & understandable denominations.

I was thinking of using Metric Currency based on mass.

Since Volume changes based on environmental factors, mass generally shouldn't change, especially since it's our most basic form of measurement. We all know the UFP is Human/Earth Centric and that the Metric System is the Glue that Binds all species, despite whatever their local measurement system is, every other Species has to deal with the Human Centric Metric System. Just like the USA has to co-exist with it, every other Member World will have to co-exist with the Metric System and have their own conversion tables.

And that tiny ~10 ml of Latinum was worth ~100 Bricks I think basing the top denomination of a new UFP designed Latinum based Coinage revolving it's entire basis on the "Mass of the Latinum", (NOT the "Mass of the Coin").

So we can start in denominations of
1 gram of Latinum
1 decigram of Latinum
1 centigram of Latinum
1 milligram of Latinum
1 microgram of Latinum
1 nanogram of Latinum

In the past, the US had Obsolete denominations up to $100,000 bills. That's 10,000,000 pennies.
And if you go far back enough, the penny used to be worth something and you could buy some stuff with that.

What do you think of the UFP using the Metric System to create Coin Shaped Denominations that hold Latinum inside that you can clearly see through a tough transparent windowed core (Made of Transparent Aluminium?) and use a Tricorder to scan and measure/validate the mass of the Latinum for fraud?

You can scale the size of the Coin Shaped Denomination from the smallest Coin to the Largest Coin based on Mass of the Latinum you intend to hold inside.

 

[at Quark's]

Well, coins=money=evil. So that would never do for the Federation.
Of course, running around with standardized bricks is not money, so that is perfectly fine. Even though it amounts to exactly the same thing, except clumsier.

Also, in current monetary systems the steps between denominations usually are much smaller than what you propose, usually more akin to a factor 2-2.5 (for example the Euro has units of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and so on, and I think it is similar (or exactly the same) with dollars - it's been 15 years since I was in the US last time so I don't quite remember). Using a metric factor of 10 would require far more units in the average exchange,. to not even mention the factor of 1000 between the last three denominations. To illustrate that point, try paying the exact amount of, say, 173.58 in both the 'metric' system and in the 'Euro' system and note the different number of 'coins' you'd need (24 vs 10 if I counted correctly).

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Well, coins=money=evil. So that would never do for the Federation.
Of course, running around with standardized bricks is not money, so that is perfectly fine. Even though it amounts to exactly the same thing, except clumsier.

I think most people are more mature and not so simple minded to just see "coins = money = evil". Reality is far more complicated and many alien races accept "Latinum" as a currency.

If the UFP has to do business outside, why wouldn't making their own version of "Latinum" be a good thing?

God knows how shady Ferengi are with their Latinum. We all heard of Rom shaving a few Latinum off their currency.

Also, in current monetary systems the steps between denominations usually are much smaller than what you propose, usually more akin to a factor 2-2.5 (for example the Euro has units of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and so on, and I think it is similar (or exactly the same) with dollars - it's been 15 years since I was in the US last time so I don't quite remember). Using a metric factor of 10 would require far more units in the average exchange,. to not even mention the factor of 1000 between the last three denominations. To illustrate that point, try paying the exact amount of, say, 173.58 in both the 'metric' system and in the 'Euro' system and note the different number of 'coins' you'd need (24 vs 10 if I counted correctly).

I'm basing the idea off the "Metric System", so if you have a way to have steps in between that work with the Metric System's standard Prefixes, please I'm all ears.

 

[at Quark's]

I think most people are more mature and not so simple minded to just see "coins = money = evil". Reality is far more complicated and many alien races accept "Latinum" as a currency.

Well, I was being facetious. That's because the entire idea of there being no money in use within the Federation is preposterous in the first place. Money is far too convenient an invention to ever abandon and an advanced economy could not work without some universal medium of exchange, even in an economy based on abundance that has still some rare unreplicable items. They should never have portrayed the Federation as moneyless, but simply as money only being an instrument to let the economy run smoothly, not a goal to be acquired in itself.

(*) I must add to this that to me, any universally accepted general medium of exchange counts as 'money'. So if the Federation would have some credit system in place that is accepted by all, and that can be used as a general means to get something limited (e.g. a house on a coveted spot) to me that counts as money , even if they don't call it that.

But now I'm venturing a bit off topic so I'll stop here.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Well, I was being facetious. That's because the entire idea of there being no money in use within the Federation is preposterous in the first place. Money is far too convenient an invention to ever abandon and an advanced economy could not work without some universal medium of exchange, even in an economy based on abundance that has still some rare unreplicable items. They should never have portrayed the Federation as moneyless, but simply as money only being an instrument to let the economy run smoothly, not a goal to be acquired in itself.

The fact that Federation Credits exist to be used to exchange with foreign cultures / entities proves that some form of money exists. How do you know how much Credits you can get / use when you deal with foreign entities outside the UFP?

The UFP must have some form of measurement to quantify how much work you've done and how much allocation of "Credits" you're allowed to access when dealing with foreign cultures / entities.

I think the internal system that the UFP uses is different, but not "Money-less" or "Resource-less", but the way you acquire stuff is different.

(*) I must add to this that to me, any universally accepted general medium of exchange counts as 'money'. So if the Federation would have some credit system in place that is accepted by all, to me that counts as money , even if they don't call it that.

But now I'm venturing a bit off topic so I'll stop here.

Don't stop, we need your wisdom =D

The Federation Credit is only useful to Alien Cultures / Entities that are willing to use it to exchange for UFP Goods & Services, if they don't value the UFP Credit, then it holds no real value.

If Latinum is what they prefer, so be it.

 

[Kor]

Maybe other materials have a bad reaction with latinum, so only gold will do for the casing.

Kor

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Maybe other materials have a bad reaction with latinum, so only gold will do for the casing.

Kor

Yet it seems to do just fine in that glass that Morn spit the 10 ml of Latinum into.

 

[Kor]

Yet it seems to do just fine in that glass that Morn spit the 10 ml of Latinum into.

Well yes, but if latinum was encased in glass as a standard, then those slips, strips and bars would be somewhat fragile.

Though the gold casing also seems pretty fragile. I have always wondered what kind of "gold" breaks and crumbles into dust so easily:

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It must be some kind of composite material with gold particles in a bonding/adhesive substance.

Kor

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Well yes, but if latinum was encased in glass as a standard, then those slips, strips and bars would be somewhat fragile.

So Glass on the inner layer & Transparent Aluminium on the outter layer for the window to see the Latinum?

The Coin's rim can be whatever metal material you want for structural integrity.

Also, in current monetary systems the steps between denominations usually are much smaller than what you propose, usually more akin to a factor 2-2.5 (for example the Euro has units of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and so on, and I think it is similar (or exactly the same) with dollars - it's been 15 years since I was in the US last time so I don't quite remember). Using a metric factor of 10 would require far more units in the average exchange,. to not even mention the factor of 1000 between the last three denominations. To illustrate that point, try paying the exact amount of, say, 173.58 in both the 'metric' system and in the 'Euro' system and note the different number of 'coins' you'd need (24 vs 10 if I counted correctly).

Apparently, the "Gamma" is deprecated unit of mass that is equivalent to 1 μg (microgram).
If you want to refactor your base unit from "The Gram" to "The Gamma".

We can shift the Metric Prefixes that we use to:
mega-Gamma
kilo-Gamma
hecto-Gamma
deca-Gamma
Gamma
deci-Gamma
centi-Gamma
milli-Gamma

What do you think, then almost everything would be a power of 10 scaling for the coinage?

Or should we have Dollars & Cents and have dual coinage? But we use grams & gamma

 

[at Quark's]

I would expect Latinum to be fairly inert stuff (and hence cause no problems to encasing materials). After all, didn't Morn hold it in his 2nd stomach for 10 years or so? So at least on a biochemical level it seems to do little.

Then again, there's the unresolved riddle (in canon sources, at least, AFAIK) as to why it is unreplicable in the first place, so it must have some pretty unusual properties.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I would expect Latinum to be fairly inert stuff (and hence cause no problems to encasing materials). After all, didn't Morn hold it in his 2nd stomach for 10 years or so? So at least on a biochemical level it seems to do little.

I concur, the only thing it did to Morn was made him lose his hair and prevent the hair from regrowing, other than that, he was fine.

Then again, there's the unresolved riddle (in canon sources, at least) as to why it is unreplicable in the first place, so it must have some pretty unusual properties.

Yup, but that's also what makes it valuable as a currency in the age of replicators. =D

What do you think of the dual denominations, like "Dollar & Cents".

But "Gram & Gamma"

 

[at Quark's]

I'd say it is a very wide range - you end up with either a lot of extremely-low-value or extremely-high-value 'coins' that would rarely be used in practice.

For example, let's go with your statement that the smallest coin (the milli-Gamma) would have about the buying power of 1 penny.. Then the largest ' coin' would be the equivalent of 10 billion dollars. Most monetary systems don't see the need have a factor of more than, say 10,000 (the dollar for example, 1 ct vs 100 dollar) or perhaps 100,0000 between their lowest and highest denomination.

Where I live, the largest bills in everyday use are 50 euros (= about 58 dollars). Larger bills exist (100, 200. Production of the 500 has been discontinued in 2016, it seems), but I rarely see one in daily life. Cash machines don't dispense them. Neither do many shops accept such higher-value denominations around here.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I'd say it is a very wide range - you end up with either a lot of extremely-low-value or extremely-high-value 'coins' that would rarely be used in practice.

For example, let's go with your statement that the smallest coin (the milli-Gamma) would have about the buying power of 1 penny.. Then the largest ' coin' would be the equivalent of 10 billion dollars. Most monetary systems don't see the need have a factor of more than, say 10,000 (the dollar for example, 1 ct vs 100 dollar) or perhaps 100,0000 between their lowest and highest denomination.

Where I live, the largest bills in everyday use are 50 euros (= about 58 dollars). Larger bills exist (100, 200. Production of the 500 has been discontinued in 2016, it seems), but I rarely see one in daily life. Cash machines don't dispense them. Neither do many shops accept such higher-value denominations around here.

So what would you recommend if the milli-Gamma is equivalent to the penny and the penny was still valuable & useful for buying basic food & services in small quantities?

Assuming the UFP Central Bank was tasked to prevent inflation and deflation and keep the value of the smallest single denomination useful.

Would you say get rid of the gram and just rely on gamma entirely?

Avoid confusion with the entire gram system?​

 

[publiusr]

Credits and such are more easily traced…where that brick of…whatever…could just as easily have come from a sap phasered out of existence an hour ago as from the hold of the Atocha centuries ago. Possession is 9/10’s of the Law.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

That's why Credit Cards will still exist =D