Eduran taken

The Taken (symbol: ɛ code: EDU; also abbreviated as ɛ-Edu or the Eduran Taken, also informally as quad, squid, robert, or the goat,) is the currency of the Grand Commonwealth of Edury, and has existed in some form for centuries.

Today, it is arguably the oldest currency in current use. It is the 12th most traded international currency in exchange markets. Famously, it is also one of the few non-decimal currencies still in existence. The Taken is broken down into 60 shots.

The Republican Central Bank (in Eduran, Lede Hub Bank, LHB) is the central bank of the country. Banks are not privately owned in Edury, save for a handful of foreign banks which have received special permission from the Assembly as well as the Finance Ministry to operate in Edury. As such, the government, through the LHB, directly oversees the issuance of banknotes and coins.

Etymology and Names
Taken (/tɑːkn/) comes from the proto-blethic word *taikn. Shot, the major subdivision, comes from the word Sceat. The various nicknames are hard to find the sources of, but squid is a word that was used by sailors to refer to the importation of calamari.

History
The Great Sedic Confederation was the first state to mint currency used in Edury. Coins, made of either silver or gold, were minted elsewhere in the Confederation and circulated in Edury. As Edury was the frontier of the state, barter and other forms of trade were also common.

The first coins minted in what would become Edury were called the Sceat (shaet,) or the penny. These were small, little coins minted of silver. In the early days of Eduran society, silver was extremely highly valued, partly because it does not occur naturally in the mines of the mountains of the region, and partly because of how easily mintable it was.

Prior to 900, reflecting the political structure of the region, mints operated almost as private institutions. Given the fact that there were dozens of independent city-states, feudal warlord domains, and other very small, independent political groups, and that all of these states required a medium of exchange, it did not behoove any except the largest and most powerful cities to mint their own currency. The mints of these large cities would often be private individuals contracted by the ruling council, who would provide currency to the city, but would also offer their services to several towns and cities nearby. These first coins were small, typically having some symbol of the town in which the mint was located on the obverse, and the symbol of the monier on the reverse.

After 1150, when the Eduran Confederation had existed for some time, the Bandsmeet decreed that the minting of money was a federal prerogative, and stripped outlying moniers of their right to mint silver coins. A series of moniers based out of Eduvesting would receive contracts to mint silver pennies for the state; these would be constantly inspected to prove that the moniers minted coins of the correct weight and purity of silver. As the Confederation would expand, regions added through conquest would often lose the right to mint their own currency first. Those city-states that joined willingly often were able to gain concessions to keep their own mints for a set period of time after joining- sometimes these periods were extended, if the state being willingly annexed set their currency at parity to the Confederal pennies.

Throughout this period, Stroomist temples were acting as city granaries. Lords who owned the land outside the city had an obligation to send a set amount of grain to their city, and this would often be stored either in the temple, or in buildings owned by the local temple. However, those who had private stores of wheat would often also use the temples as a store of their produce. The typical unit of measurement for these grain deposits was the bushel- initially a unit of volume, equal to a small barrel. Each temple would contract with a cooper to make these barrels, and as such, each one was slightly different. As the Confederation expanded, the size of this bushel was standardized. The amount of wheat that could fit into one bushel-barrel was typically 60 pounds.

For those who were storing private grain supplies in the temple, the priests would give these people a token. This token would have a design, which was marked into the barrel. Initially these designs were to display that the barrel was made to the correct size, but this second use with the tokens would be quickly mimicked. The bearer of this token could, at any point, bring it back to the temple, and get his grain returned to him. These tokens were treated as a second currency (a commodity currency) where ownership of grains and cereal crops could be easily traded, without ever having to collect the grain itself. The temples would not segregate the grains that were deposited as the mandatory contribution by the lords and the grains that were still owned by private individuals, but would use it all as one supply. This meant that temples acted, in a sort of fashion, as the first banks of Edury.

Following the Last War, the tokens of the temples started to be made with precious metals. The bearer of these tokens would be able to either keep them for the value of the silver or gold in it, or deposit them back with the temple for the value of their grain. This gave the bushel tokens two values; the value of the metal could fluctuate with inflation and the value of gold or silver, and the value of the grain that it represented- which was set in stone. If you deposited grain when the price of food was high, and the value of the silver was higher than the face value for the 60 pounds of wheat, then money would be made by the depositors, and there would be a rush to put food into the temples- which increased the supply of food held by the cities when they could not otherwise purchase it, and contributions from the lords may not be very high. However, when the price of food dropped below the value of the silver or gold contained in the weight of these tokens, depositors could be sure that they would, at the very least, always be able to take out the face grain value of the token.

Serious reform to the way that coins and tokens would occur under the reign of Forwielder Hamrich Linhome, the infamous ruler during the first half of the 16th century. Hamrich had an iron hold on the Bandsmeet of the Confederation, and used it to centralize the power held by the state. Using his influence in parliament, he passed a law that decreed that the tokens of the temples would have to be standardized. The tokens (called Taken, /tɑːkn/,) as well as the pennies, could only be minted from thence on in one mint, in Eduvesting. Silver pennies would bear the face of the Forwielder on the obverse, and the coat of arms of the Senate on the other. The tokens were much the same, with the same images on each side, with the temple for which the token was minted written on the reverse. Furthermore, possibly the most controversial part of the Money Act of 1526, Hamrich fixed the value of the pennies (now known by the modern name, the shot) at 60 to a Taken. This effectively fixed the price of grain at one penny per pound. To get around this, temples started to return to the old token system, where the tokens were made simply out of a less valuable metal such as bronze, copper, iron, etc. Forwielder Hamrich then counter acted this by abolishing the token system altogether. The system would return after Hamrich’s son was elected to the position following his father’s death in the mid 1500’s, however, by that point, it was spent. Temples abandoned the token system, and would simply buy grain from private depositors, and then sell it back. This allowed the markets to float, however, it harmed the underclasses of many cities in Edury, as the abolition of the token system hampered the store of grain, which many temples used as a dole.

The Taken (subdivided into 60 shots) was from thence on the standard currency of Edury. The most drastic reform until the introduction of paper money would be those undertaken by Forwielder Hubert Hubertshome. He would introduce the minting of several denominations of coins, namely the gin, a two-penny coin, the hammie, a three-penny coin, the sentry, a six-penny coin, and the lord, a ten-penny coin. A two-Taken coin was briefly introduced, but minting ceased shortly after its introduction due to the high value making it hard to use. A half-penny coin was also introduced, called a shim, and would be minted until the 19th century, when inflation rendered its purchasing power negligible.

The introduction of paper money would be in the 17th century, as gold and silver merchants would give receipts in regular denominations for those who deposited gold with them. These merchants would evolve into bankers. By the 18th century, official paper money was being printed, although private banks would continue to print their own bank notes until the Worker’s Spring. The official Richbank of Edury was founded in 1700, and began to issue paper promissory notes, which would be given to those who deposited silver Takens or shots with the bank, and could be withdrawn by the bearer of the note. This, much like the grain with the old token system, allowed people to trade large sums of silver without ever having to touch the stuff. The Richbank, as well as other private banks, would also start giving the same receipts for gold deposited. These banks would loan out the silver that was deposited in them, and would charge interest rates on these loans. The Richbank would only give loans to either the state- which controlled the board of the bank- or to large, international companies, such as the Pathfinders Guild. The Senate, or specifically, the Committee on Monies, had the right to appoint the board of the Richbank. The Senate soon awarded the Richbank the sole right in the country to mint coins, although paper money would still be printed by private banks.

This situation would continue uninterrupted for several decades. The Eduran Revolution would transfer the power to control the Richbank to the Assembly, as well as change minor monetary policy, but things continued as usual for another hundred years until the Workers' Spring. The Febuarist-Wheelerist government lead by Barend de Boer would abolish private banking, forbid the printing of private banknotes, and while the Assembly retained the right to appoint the board of the newly renamed Lede Hub Bank, the president of the bank would be appointed by the Vaultmaster (Or treasurer/minister of the treasury.) The LHB would lose the right to print money, as that would be given to the office of the Vaultmaster. The LHB today acts as a simple bank, although it still gives loans to the Eduran state, as well as other nations, and large corporations (with the permission of the state.)

The silver standard would be abandoned briefly after WWII, but would be readopted after WWIII, where the ramifications of the war lead to wild inflation of Eduran money. The government would accept non-silver Takens and shots printed and minted during the interwar years, but they stopped being official currency in 1969.

Coins
The coins introduced by Hubert Hubertshome are still in existence today, with the addition of a two- and three-Taken coin in the 20th century. In 1934, non-silver coins would be minted by the government, although they were still redeemable for silver at any branch of the LHB. Silver and non-silver coins would continue to be minted side-by-side until the 1971 Great Kerfuffle. Today, silver coins are only minted to commemorate special occasions, and coins can only be used to be redeemed for silver at a Main Branch of the LHB, and only if the coins redeemed add up to a value of at least 10 Takens.

Bills
The office of the Vaultmaster moved from paper to polymer banknotes in 2005. After 2010, paper banknotes will continue to be accepted for deposit, but withdrawals will only be given in the polymer banknotes. Today, Edury prints a ½ Taken, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 Taken banknote for general circulation. A 1,000 Taken note exists, but this is only used to transfer funds from bank-to-bank, and ceased being printed in 2005.

Decimalization
Various peoples and groups have proposed decimalization of the currency to allow easier conversions between neighbor countries, and to bring Edury closer into the fold with the Aarieau Fraternity, which Edury is in the process of joining. The Other Party has at times supported decimalization, however, the National Workers Association has never listed it as a manifesto policy. In 2016, Vaultmaster Errik Waleborough publicly said “We’re never going to decimalize the f— currency, get it?”