PIXIPOL, a unified theoretical currency

A. D. Corlan

The pixipol system of theoretical currencies (account money) is an attempt to provide a method to estimate the purchasing power of money, using an unit that is constant in time and (geographical) space.

Its purpose is primarily to allow a quick, gross, assessment of the value of ammounts mentioned in historical novels, movies and TV shows (how much is a doubloon worth in strips of gold pressed latinum? well, 8/15, a little above half a strip.).

The pixipol [PXP] is defined as equal to a debasing Special Drawing Right (XDR or SDR), with an average rate of 3.1415926% per year, that covers the recent decades, after the end of the Bretton Woods system. The value of the pixipol was 1 PXP = 1 XDR at t₀=september 2, 2006.

1 PXP = 1.031415926^(t-t₀) XDR at time t, measured in years.

A convenient subdivision of the PXP is the PXS, or the picsikle or, shortly, the pic (we will use PIC below), that is:

1 PIC = 1/60 PXP

For the interval covering the 3000 years before the Bretton Woods, when the currency, or at least the account currencies, effectively consisted of gold and silver, 1 PIC is defined as 1/16 of a gram of sterling (0.925) silver or 1/240 of a gram of standard (0.91) gold. The gold/silver ratio that we assume is thus 15.247253 which is the upper limit of the gold/silver purchasing power ratio along the history. It is also close to the ratio of the two metals in natural deposits. The current world market ratio is about 3 times higher for gold, but neither gold nor silver are really circulating as money anymore. The PIC is also close to the value of a troy grain of silver, as well as, grossly, a stater, or shekel, of brass or other non-ferous base metals, thus the name (picsikle).

The most widely used currency standards used across multiple countries and regions over the history are assigned integer numbers of PICs, that approximate either the definition of theoretical currencies (for example: one troy pound of sterling is about 373g, but we assign for it 6000 PICs, that is 375*16) or the most widely circulated ammount, or just an ammount in the middle of the circulating range for the more fluctuating currencies.

The assignment of the PIC ammount for each currency is choosen as to preserve, as much as possible, widely known and used historical ratios between various coins.

Ammounts of other commodities, such as copper or wheat, that have been widely used as 'natural' currencies are also assigned PIC ammounts, based on current market values. These prices show a curious constancy (with fluctuations of up to only three times) with respect to silver, extending over the last millenia.

Another commodity that is relatively constant with respect to the a stable currency value is energy. 1 PIC = 1 MJ (megajoule) of electricity delivered at the power socket in a city household for most countries (like the USA or Romania) that do not tax electricity too highly, thus it represents an adequate gross assessment of its economic value.

The PIXORLANT (PXO) or CLARKE is a PIXIPOL multiple:

1 PXO = 60 PXP

It is equivallent to 1MWh of electrical energy delivered at the home socket. Arthur Clarke predicted that in 2016 all other currencies will be replaced by the MWh, thereby this unit is also called a 'Clarke'.

Besides grasping what values they talk about in novels, you can use these to evaluate things such as total cost of ownership of something over many years (when devaluation counts).

And also, of course, you can resuscitate ancient currencies. For example, you can take a piece a paper and write on it ``I will pay the bearer 1 ELECTRUM STATER (1500 PIC)'' and sign it. Now you have an item having about the same buying power as the oldest coin in the world had---provided that you are solvable :).

If you want to also feel it, you can make it a token having the wood volume or cardboard area proportional to the PIC value. The computations for their sizes are available by clicking on the curency names below.

With the wooden versions you can add them up by weighting an assortment of tokens, like in the old times.

Have fun.

List of all PIC/Clarke-based theoretical currency systems

CLARKE: Decimal clarke system (Arthur Clarke: the MWh as currency)

CLARKE-ELECTRIC: Electric energy system

CATTLE: Earliest systems of cattle and grain as currency

PIXIPOL: Pixipol system (hexagensimal clarke)

DECIPIC: Decimal system based on PIC.

ATTIC: Attic system

ELENISTIC: Later greek system, combined with contemporary middle east systems

ROMAN: Roman early imperial system (O. Augustus).

BYZANTINE: Byzantine system

CAROLINGIAN: Mid-medieval system in western Europe (mostly England and France)

SLAVIC: Early slavic system

JAPANESE: Pre-yen japanese system

OTTOMAN: Ottoman system, across a few centuries (akce in the XIV-th century, lira later with otto divisions)

WALLACHIAN: Wallachian coins until the XVII-th century

ROMANIAN-PRINCIPATES: Organic regulament units of value, Moldavia and Wallachia, 1830.

SPANISH: Spanish empire/mexican system. PESO=piece-of-eight

DOLLAR: US/Spanish dollar, decimalised.

FRANC: Latin Monetary Union franc/leu/drachm/lira/rubble/etc.

GOLD-POUND: British empire gold-standard pound

LATINUM: Ferengi-favored system from Star Trek

POTTER: Rowling's Harry Potter system

List of all theoretical currencies, in ascending order of value