The Disappearance of a Currency

B16　—　Cross-cutting theme

A currency is killed in three ways.

Supervised by: Mitsuru Hayama　／　Reading time (main text): About 9 min (4,725 characters of text at 500 chars/min; exercises and readings not included)　／　Beyond the text: 11 exercises · 4 coins · 17 readings · 1 references

What this course teaches you to do

• You can tell apart the four types of a currency's disappearance, with examples.
• You can explain a case of disappearance by market refusal, apart from the strength of power.
• You can explain why annulment by decree tends to be told as "confiscation."
• You can state, in your own words, the conditions under which money vanishes although no one banned it.
• Can explain, with actual examples, the fragmentation of currency due to civil war and partition, and the pattern of resolution by the victor.
• Can explain the mechanism and objective of *Verrufung* (periodic renewal of coinage).

Lessons (8)

1. Disappearance happens in every countryDisappearance is not an accident but an ordinary event; every edition has examples. But counts also mirror the writer's interest.
2. If the market will not take it, even a king cannot kill itA coin refused by the market vanishes without anyone banning it. The receiver decides, not the issuer.
3. The decree kills — the day it becomes void overnightA decree can void money. But the length of grace changes the outcome. Write the design and the experience apart.
4. It dies although no one killed itThere is a disappearance with no agent. If the system that needs it goes, money dies unkilled.
5. Splitting Currencies — Civil War and DivisionWhen a battlefront divides a nation, its currency also splits. The outcome is decided by the victor's decree.
6. Currency That Periodically Dies — VerrufungA currency that lost value just by being held—effectively penalizing hoarding—actually existed in medieval Germany.
7. The Dream of Abolition — An Experiment to Eliminate MoneyThe revolutionary regime even dreamed of abolishing money. The seventy-year experiment came to a close along with the empire.
8. The Afterlife — Names, Promises, and CollectiblesA currency lives on after its death in three forms: in names, in promises of exchange, and as collectibles.

Readings (17)

• The gold coin that failed　Britain　1344　The London mint
  §2. A gold coin refused by the market. It was over in a few months.
• The blockade and the two marks　Germany　1948–1949　Berlin, the border between east and west
  §2. Check the gap between the official ratio and the black-market rate.
• The realm of three coinages　Japan　1668–1670　Kameido village, Edo
  §3. Note what was done before the prohibition.
• The week of the ten-guilder note　Netherlands　September 1945　A liberated town, the ration counter
  §3. The scene of living a week on a single note.
• The week of the ten-guilder note　Netherlands　1945　A bank counter, the autumn of declarations
  §3. ⚠ A correction of the way it is told as "confiscation." This is the core of the course.
• Japan　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　AD 1946　The New Yen Conversion
  §3. The same method was applied in Japan too.
• India　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　AD 2016　Demonetisation
  §3. What happens when the grace period is a single night.
• The blockade and the two marks　Germany　1948　The border with the Soviet occupation zone
  §3. A case where the split of the currency preceded the split of the state.
• The civil war　Spain　1936　The peninsula torn in two
  The other side of §3. Holding the enemy's notes became a crime.
• The civil war　Spain　1939　The peninsula after the war
  The other side of §3. The fate that awaits the loser's money.
• The island where money vanished　Britain　the 5th century　A provincial town falling into decay
  §4. A disappearance with no agent. This is the conclusion of the course.
• Russia　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　from AD 1917　The Experiment That Put Money to Sleep
  §4. An experiment that set out to abolish money and ended by remaking it.
• The bracteate　Germany　the 12th–13th centuries　The market square of a territory
  Section 6. A currency penalized for hoarding. The full text of the law that overturns modern common sense.
• Towards the euro　Spain　the present　Madrid, the Puerta del Sol
  Section 8. Posthumous life in a name. The concluding paragraph of the chapter.
• Notes that promise no exchange　China　the 15th–17th centuries　Face values that survive only in ledgers
  Alive in law, but dead in the market. This describes a banknote that remained unchanged for two hundred years without causing major disruption, and the reason why it was more peaceful not to abolish it.
• Ten to One　South Korea　1962　The Exchange Counter
  This is the record of a currency conversion designed to draw out hoarded cash that failed to achieve its goal. The central bank itself has left a written account of this.
• Platinum Coinage　Russia　1845　Saint Petersburg
  This is the story of a platinum coin after it was demonetized in seventeen years. It describes where the metal went after many of the recalled coins were melted down and ceased to be currency.

Assessment

11 exercises in this course (8 check, 0 compare, 3 written). Progress is recorded by self-assessment.

References

• Currency Timeline 1962–1970 (prohibition of the hwan and switch to the won). — Bank of Korea　Primary source on the practical procedures for demonetizing the old currency (1962-06-10), with coins remaining in limited circulation until 1975.

Only works and primary sources whose existence has been verified are listed.