The headlines today include South Korea's measures for the coronavirus. Here's the headline:South Korea compiled an 11.7 trillion won ($9.85 billion) supplementary budget on Wednesday to strengthen anti-virus measures and prop up its economy as its coronavirus cases topped 5,600.
Initially, I couldn't make sense of "won". To me, it is a verb not a noun. That got me looking for unusual currencies and I offer these - they come from moneyversed.com HERE.
Rai stones: On the island of Yap in Micronesia, if someone asks you for change, you might need to get a slightly larger coin purse. These massive limestones are between five and 20 feet in diameter… and their value may be determined by how many people perished while transporting them.
Katanga cross: You’ll find this currency in the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For a short period time, it was used as the primary form of currency. Good thing it was for only brief amount of time, however, seeing as how each one weighed a hefty two pounds!
Manchukuo yuan: The Manchukuo yuan was used by Japanese Imperial forces when they occupied Manchuria. These coins were actually made out of cardboard since metal was in short supply during the war.
German wooden dollars: In Germany after World War I, inflation was out of control and this led to some towns making their own money out of wood. They called this currency not geld, which literally translated to mean “not gold.”
So as we look forward for what will happen in currencies, given our digital journey. The Moore Global says:
Whilst sovereign fiat currency in the form of physical cash remains the only universally acceptable form of public money, innovations in cryptocurrencies and stablecoins can offer more effective forms of transactions and will continue to disrupt the finance industry.
I sure have a lot of images of tree bark. These are from our trip to Colorado a few years ago - that wonderful pine bark with its rich colours and curving shapes.
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