Karmic Dollar

The karmic dollar is the national currency of McPsychoville, and is the only currency the main banks in McPsychoville accept. Much like its American and Canadian counterparts, one karmic dollar is split into a hundred karmic cents. The karmic dollar’s value has recently been very high, both when compared with the US dollar and individually, but oddly is not seen as being particularly strong.

History

The origins of the karmic dollar are sketchy at best. When McPsychoville was initially colonised, it was generally accepted that the currency of the newly-founded nation was to be the dollar, in concurrence with the Canadian Empire and its other colonies. However, the story goes that a small portion of the colonists were Buddhists, and believed in the concept of karma. Believing many of the party to be sinful in some way or another, one of these people re-christened the dollar the karmic dollar.

While this is the widely-accepted story, there is a growing consortium of scholars who believe that there is something more to this myth. Allegedly, the value of the karmic dollar has been highest in the times when McPsychoville has been least sinful - i.e. has not been involved in conflict, has had low crime and drug abuse and so on, so forth - and this has lead to these scholars claiming that the McPsychovillian government has to change its political ethos ‘for the good of the economy’.

The karmic dollar has maintained a fairly stable exchange rate. At the close of trade January 31st, one karmic dollar bought 2.84 US dollars - the highest the McPsychoville/United States exchange rate has ever risen - but it usually hovers somewhere around the 1.6 US$ mark.

Trade and Exchange Rates

With McPsychoville’s recent re-classification as having an ‘All-Consuming’ economical status, the karmic dollar has experienced a jump in rates. Some of the rates against prominent Alliance nations are shown below:

Beckitaria - 333.2323 pebbles
Gothria - 3.1654 Ankhs
Kegmenistan - 0.8492 Kegros
Roudland - 0.8970 Roudollars
Super Rome - 0.9012 Denarii
Yew Island - 6.2429 Yewros

Denominations

Like many nations, McPsychoville operates using a mixture of coins and notes for currency. There are currently 2, 5, 10, 25 and 50 karmic cent pieces, and a 1 karmic dollar coin - the karmic cent pieces are made using an alloy of nickel, steel and tiny amounts of silver, while the karmic dollar coin is an alloy of bronze and brass, which gives it a distinctive dark gold colour. The small amount of silver is down to the fact that there are so many karmic cents in circulation that to use more than trace amounts would require vast quantities of silver; quantities much greater than contained within McPsychoville.

Of karmic dollars, there are a number of notes in use - 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 150 karmic dollar notes. While none of them are in short supply, there are comparatively few 100 and 150 notes in circulation because for large purchases most citizens prefer to use credit cards, both for ease of use and greater security.