Kalistan

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Government releases Proofsheet for New Peso
"Pesos begin in September 5709" says Berry
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
December 20, 5708


New Currency adopts more classic design

Her Imperial Majesty's Finance Minister, Dr. Roger Berry, who has been overseeing the new currency design for the Empire of Ananto and Kalistan has released a proof sheet which features the new design for Kalistan's currency. Designated the Imperial Peso, the new currency will replace the current Imperial Ruble beginning in September 5709.

"We went out to artists across the Empire and asked them to design us currency which is both familiar, and at the same time, different from our current money," said Minister Berry. "Each of these designs feature a composite of hand drawn and computer assisted graphics design to create unique Kalistani bank notes for use as a medium of exchange within Kalistan And Ananto. We preserved the coloration of many of the bills, especially in the 1 and the 20, which are closest to their older designs, both in theme and in coloration, because those two bills are the most common bills in circulation and we felt that people are perhaps the most used to those. The others have undergone a much more comprehensive redesign."

Nicolette I Ananto remains the face of the 100 Peso note, as she was on the 100 Ruble note. This was a specific request of Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Carolina II Ananto. Other obverse portraits included Fredrick II Ananto and Fredrick IV Ananto on the 1 and the 50 respectively, The Black Empress Pavlina I Ananto on the 5, Mary I Ananto on the 10, and Carolina I Ananto on the 20. "With exception of Nicolette I Ananto, the new Peso features only historical members of the Fifth, or Kundrati Dynasty, including Pavlina," said Minister Berry. "We thought it prudent to remove the republican leaders from our bills, though they are important historically to our nation and just focus on the predecessors of our current Monarch. Each one of these monarchs was important in his or her own right, and their bills feature imagery loosely tied to these monarchs' reign. For instance, Mary's 10 features a redwood forest as its reverse, demonstrating her strong commitment to forestry and her foundation for Kalistan's future deep forests."

Numerous security features positively blanket each note to make them difficult to counterfeit. "From the actual complexity of the drawings to rfid chip inlays, to unique and cryptological serial number sequences to watermarks and polychromatic ink that looks different when rotated under light to black light designs embedded into the artwork which can be easily used to determine whether a bill is fake, these bills may look somewhat antique but they are state of the art in terms of technological anti-counterfeiting measures. We know we will not stop counterfeiting, but the goal is to make the currency too difficult and perhaps too expensive to counterfeit in a way that will be profitable. The goal is to improve confidence that the bill you are getting will be a genuine bill, and has the actual backing of the Imperial Government, rather than some cheap copy that someone made at home." Berry said he hopes that fakes will be impossible to miss.

One other aspect of the currency that the Finance Ministry intends to use to maintain the value of the currency is a public database of every single physical peso issued along with all outstanding electronic currency. "We want people to know how much money, both in terms of money in people's actual pocket, and the 1s and 0s that are in people's bank accounts there in circulation. This is theoretically easy, as all notes when they are printed, are recorded by the Imperial National Bank's Engraving Department, and 90% of all monetary transactions go through the Imperial National Bank's EFT system. It is possible to make that ledger public without tying it to any individual identifying information, so people can be free to check it at any time to ensure that there is not a wild spike or drop in Kalistan's monetary supply." Private banks like the Bank of Kalistan and the Bank of Suldanor will be asked to provide similar information, but the ForIn Bank is shielded from any such reporting. "But the ForIn Bank is for foreign investments, so those investments wouldn't have any effect on the Kalistani monetary supply," said Minister Berry.

The 100 Peso Note is an example of many of the multitude of security features in the new currency including the 14k Gold leaf inlay which has the Imperial Seal on the obverse and a grape wreath on the reverse, as well as watermark and polychrome ink overlay.

When it comes time to begin turning money in, Berry said the process should be fairly easy. "We will simply denominate bank accounts in pesos rather than rubles, at the exchange rate we land on. We are aiming to start wherever the ruble is at the time and then go from there." In terms of physical currency, citizens will have one year from the date the currency goes out of effect to get full value from the trade in. "The Imperial Bank will exchange it at face value for one year but after that, the currency will not be considered legal tender and will only carry a collectors' valuation, whatever that happens to be. At that time we will be able to evaluate, based on the amount of old money surrendered, what the Ruble will be valued at: it will likely appreciate in value, which will make foreign goods increase in price in the market, while preferring domestic goods." The face value exchange rate shall hold for all Kalistani nationals, at home and abroad.

"We still have to deal with a somewhat sizeable amount of Kalistani currency held by foreigners," said Berry. "We do not know how much Kalistani currency is held by foreigners, but the Bank estimates it to be somewhat less than 1% of the total amount of currency. Kalistani currency is not attractive to foreigners, because it does not generally move: It is considered a more conservative investment option than even long term treasury bonds from stable developed nations. Return on Investment is almost right around 0%, in line with Kalistan's Zero Percent Growth policies. So foreigners usually only invest in Kalistani currency when they want to protect against inflation in their own economies or when they want to wash money in their home country. We will need to wait until we begin conversion until we can figure out how much of our currency is held abroad, and then what to do about it to try to get it back." Berry said if there is resistance to conversion from foreigners, it may just happen that the money is not converted. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

Finally, Berry said that the symbol for the new Kalistani Imperial Peso will be the dollar sign. "Few know that $ originally meant pesos before the dollar took it over--It was originally a p superimposed over an s, for pesos. It is unclear why the dollar also adopted the sign, but it has become associated with both currencies since then, so it will replace our current Kip (₭) as the symbol of our currency. Kalistan is the only nation that uses the ₭ currently, and replacement for it on broken or worn out engraving plates is incredibly expensive. Switching to $ is expected to save us several million KRB in the engraving process alone." In addition to the adoption of the Peso sign, the new 3 letter designation for the Imperial Peso with be KPS, or the Kalistani Peso. To differentiate the currency from other nations, when discussing them at the same time, the currency may also be annotated K$, or the Kalistani Peso.

The Engraving section of the Imperial National Bank will begin printing the new Pesos in December.

@TheRepublic