The country is small.

It’s between 1000 sq km to 50 000 sq km in size.

It’s has between 100 000 and 1 million people.

Its GDP is over US$10 billion (2026).

FWIW, it’s multicultural with several official languages (most are officially secondary).

It got its independence between WWI and WWII.

There might have been a “Great Leader” in the past who lead at most a semi-authoritarian government (but little, if any, blood was spilled), but for the past few decades it’s been a liberal democracy, though a little socially conservative (e.g. LGBTQ are legal, but can be discriminated against in the private sector; medicinal marijuana is allowed; prostitution is allowed in certain areas; feminism exist, but in the same way it exist in, say, Utah, Texas, Alabama, or (the State of) Mississippi).

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rules, if you will:

  1. The currency was and is completely fiat—never backed by anything, such as gold or silver.

  2. Since the country’s creation it hasn’t excessively inflated the currency.

  3. There have been series of currency bills/notes, and I suppose some coins too, that have been de-monetized, though mostly to deal with counterfeiters in the early days.

  4. The currency is (I think the term is “free floating”). There is an official government exchange rate in the banks, but you can now, as you could for most, or perhaps all, of the country’s history, buy it at free market prices even in the country.

  5. As the UK pound (£1), euro (€1), and now the Swiss franc (1 CHF) are each worth more than the USD (in 1971 it was US$1 ≈ 4 CHF, in the 1980s, US$1 ≈ 3 CHF, now it’s almost US$1 ≈ 0.8 CHF) so has, in the past few years, this country’s currency base unit become greater than US$1.

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Thank you.

  • DMCMNFIBFFFOPEnglish
    4·
    25 days ago

    The country’s GDP sounds a bit low for the local currency to exceed the euro, but that really depends on how well the government controls inflation.

    IIUC, these days, the £1 > €1 > 1 CHF > US$1.

    Thus I made it 1 CHF > [this country’s currency base unit] > US$1.

    (wp:Euro#Exchange rates)

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    If the world you’re working on is for a story or a game, you’ve already specced out more details than you need for the narrative. Unless the history and performance of the currency is a significant plot point.

    Thanks. 🙂

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    If you want to make it more believable maybe look at the country’s history. If it gained it’s independence in the 1920’s how did they shift from the currency the country they used to be a part of used to their own currency and why?

    I’m thinking of making it gradual. At first when they taxed, it was in the currency of the country they were part of and/or major ones, but some of their pay—e.g. payment for government employees, soldiers, police, and politicians—was in the new currency—a small percentage at first, but it increased, as well as payments to the government increasingly was in the new currency.

    Perhaps in the 1930s, most of the payments were in other currencies; some year in the 1960s or 1970s, it became about equal; and by the 1990s, all official payments were in the new currency, with this continuing.

    With anti-counterfeiting measures improving, whether they have their own mint or engravers, or foreign ones, they made/make use of commemoratives (not going too crazy though) and large bills. Despite international pressure, they still have the equivalent of a $1000 bill.