Money That Is No Longer Used

Course number: B16

Supervised by: Mitsuru Hayama

Beyond the text: 11 exercises · 4 coins · 17 readings · 1 references　How reading times are calculated

You will also understand

• 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).

You can start this course without reading any other course.

Also worth reading, to see the connections (optional)

• Why the Composition of Gold and Silver Coins Changed
  What you learn: You can explain, stage by stage, the order in which fineness falls.

If you want to know more about checking sources (optional)

• Is It Really True? Checking History
  We re-examine the origins of money and famous anecdotes, comparing them with historical records and actual artifacts.

Assessment

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

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 does not accept it, even the king's gold coin will not circulate.A coin refused by the market vanishes without anyone banning it. The receiver decides, not the issuer.
3. Abolition by Edict — The Day It Becomes Invalid OvernightA decree can void money. But the length of grace changes the outcome. Write the design and the experience apart.
4. Ceasing to Be Used, Though No One Forbids ItThere is extinction without an actor. If the system that requires money disappears, it will cease to be used without being forbidden by anyone.
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.

• 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.
• Berlin, the border between east and west　Germany　The blockade and the two marks　1948–1949
  §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.
• A liberated town, the ration counter　Netherlands　The week of the ten-guilder note　September 1945
  §3. The scene of living a week on a single note.
• A bank counter, the autumn of declarations　Netherlands　The week of the ten-guilder note　1945
  §3. ⚠ A correction of the way it is told as "confiscation." This is the core of the course.
• Japan　Overview: the world　AD 1946　The New Yen Conversion
  §3. The same method was applied in Japan too.
• India　Overview: the world　AD 2016　Demonetisation
  §3. What happens when the grace period is a single night.
• The border with the Soviet occupation zone　Germany　The blockade and the two marks　1948
  §3. A case where the split of the currency preceded the split of the state.
• The peninsula torn in two　Spain　The civil war　1936
  The other side of §3. Holding the enemy's notes became a crime.
• The peninsula after the war　Spain　The civil war　1939
  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: 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.

• 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.

The books and materials referred to in this course.