Cents and Sensibility Trivia Quiz

Answer: Haitian dollars do not actually exist

Haiti's official currency is called the gourde, which is divisible into 100 centimes. American dollars are also used, but mainly by the well-to-do minority. The Haitian dollar is a purely imaginary unit of account that is equivalent to five gourdes; there has never actually been a currency issued by this name.

This means that while prices are quoted in Haitian dollars, people actually pay for things with gourdes and centimes. The origin of this practice appears to go back to the American occupation of Haiti during the First World War. During this period, the gourde was pegged to the American dollar at a rate of 5 gourdes to the dollar, and people became accustomed to converting dollars to gourdes at this rate.

However, the exchange rate of the Haitian gourde has floated free of the American dollar since the 1980s, and so is no longer fixed at 5:1. Nevertheless, the practice of quoting prices in imaginary dollars and converting them to gourdes for payment has remained a fact of daily life in Haiti.

Answer: Libra

Facebook announced that although Libra (like Bitcoin) would use blockchain technology for transactions, unlike Bitcoin it would be backed by a basket of hard currencies, such as US dollars, Euros, Japanese Yen, and so on, to ensure price stability. Additionally, unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Libra will not be decentralized, and transactions will be processed through a central clearing house called the Libra Association. Facebook stated that the purpose of Libra is to make monetary transactions cheap and accessible for people around the world, including the 31% of the global population who do not have bank accounts.

Despite this, the proposed currency has faced criticism from central banks, citing concerns about privacy and competition with existing currencies.

Answer: Dogecoin

Dogecoin was created by programmer Billy Markus as a "joke currency" that was inspired by a popular internet meme featuring a Shiba Inu dog ("doge" is a deliberate humorous misspelling), which is used in the currency's logo. Additionally, like the internet memes, Comic Sans MS font is used liberally in Dogecoin-related websites. Technically, Dogecoin is a clone of Litecoin, which was an early spinoff of Bitcoin and operates on similar technology. Dogecoin has been popular on a number of websites, such as Reddit, where it is sometimes used to give other users small tips for their contributions. BBQCoin, SexCoin, and DentaCoin are all real cryptocurrencies, although not particularly successful ones, and by no means the silliest ones invented.

Answer: Guineas have not circulated in Britain in over 200 years

The guinea is a gold coin that was used in Great Britain from 1663 to 1816. Although its value changed over time, it eventually became fixed at 21 shillings. A pound sterling was worth 20 shillings, and a shilling was worth 12 pence. Even though the pound sterling was the official currency, auction houses and certain retailers (usually expensive and pretentious ones) would price their goods in guineas rather than pounds, as the former was considered more prestigious. Even after guinea coins were discontinued, the practice of pricing goods in guineas continued well into the twentieth century. Great Britain switched its currency to a decimal system in 1971, so that the new pound was worth 100 pence, and shillings became obsolete. Nowadays, the racing industry values a guinea at one pound and five pence.

When a horse is sold, the seller receives one pound per Guinea, while the auctioneer receives the remaining five pence as a commission.

Answer: 1 cent

One-cent notes were first issued in 1941 due to a coin shortage that occurred during World War II. To save money they were only printed on one side, with the other being blank. Even though coins were eventually introduced, one-cent notes remained very popular for decades, despite their low value.

Hence, Hong Kong had the unusual situation of having banknotes worth one cent circulating alongside coins worth five dollars! They were finally discontinued in 1995 in anticipation of the 1997 handover to China.

Answer: They are made of plastic

Transnistria, officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, is a small territory within the Eastern European nation of Moldova that declared its independence in 1990. However, it is not recognised as a sovereign state by the UN or most other countries, which consider it to still be part of Moldova.

Despite this, Transnistria has its own government and currency. It also seems to be the first ever country to issue plastic coins. The coins are also unusual in being colourful, like banknotes, rather than having a metallic appearance.

Although the 1-ruble coin has a conventional round shape, the 3-ruble coin is square, while the 5-ruble is pentagonal, and the 10-ruble hexagonal. Although it is unusual for a coin or note to have a value of 3, it is not unheard of.

For example, the Cook Islands issues a 3-dollar note.

Answer: 100 quintillion pengo

100 quintillion is 10^20, that is, 100 million trillion! The 100 quintillion pengo note was the highest denomination banknote ever issued, yet it was estimated to be worth about US$0.20 when first issued, and soon became worth even less than that. Amazingly, notes with an even higher face value of one sextillion (10^21) pengo were printed but never issued.

The pengo was eventually discontinued (a good thing as they were actually running out of paper to print them on) and was replaced with a new currency called the forint that was valued at 400 octillion (4 × 10^29) pengo!

Answer: Mobile phone minutes

M-Pesa is a mobile-phone based money transfer service created by Vodafone for Safaricom and Vodacom, which are mobile network operators in Kenya and Tanzania, in 2007. It enables users to deposit, withdraw, transfer money and pay for goods and services using a mobile phone. People can also use the service to purchase prepaid mobile airtime, which can be swapped for cash or used to buy goods in shops, effectively making airtime a currency. M stands for "mobile" and "pesa" is Swahili for money. Many people in these countries do not use traditional banks, which charge high fees, so M-Pesa provides a cheap and convenient alternative.

Answer: Singapore $10,000 note

In 2014, Singapore announced that it would stop printing the $10,000 note, worth about US$8,000 at the time, citing concerns about its use in money laundering. Interestingly, Singapore's neighbouring country Brunei also has a $10,000 note, which was not discontinued, and has the same real value as the Singapore note, making these two the most highly valued banknotes circulating in the world at the time. Singapore and Brunei have a long-standing currency agreement that allows their banknotes to be accepted in each other's countries, and the Brunei dollar is pegged to the value of the Singapore dollar. Hence, even though Singapore stopped printing this high-value note, there is little to stop people there from using the Brunei equivalent instead!

Armenia issued the 100,000 dram note from 1998-2017. However, because of the low value of the dram, it was only worth roughly about US$200 in 2014. The Hong Kong $1,000 note was worth about US$100 around this time; this compares well to the highest denomination banknote in mainland China, RMB 100, which was worth roughly around US$20. The Swiss franc, on the other hand, is quite a strong currency, as the 1,000-franc note was worth over US$1,000.

Answer: Beer bottle caps

In 2005, a brewery started printing prize offers under beer caps as a promotional offer. Other breweries started copying this trend, until most beer caps became winners. Using beer caps became a popular way to pay for taxi rides, and taxi drivers in turn began using the caps to offer bribes to traffic police. Well, I suppose it would have given beer drinkers an incentive not to throw the caps away carelessly and create litter! Cocoa beans and blocks of tea have been used as money in other parts of the world, while specially printed pogs are used in some overseas American military bases for small change, because of the high cost of importing coins.