Friday March 18, 2005

Currency revaluations, revelations, reflections

Another quick break from the "Internationalization Myths" series to talk about 2 currency revaluations: the Turkish lira and the Azerbaijani manat.

Naoto Sato has discussed the Turkish lira revaluation, providing the facts and Java support information. But I'd just like to express my disappointment. I mean, the Turkish lira was my poster child for expansion in a currency field. After all, not too long ago it was about 1,500,000 lira to 1 US dollar. Once I showed that example, it was more than clear to the folks I presented to that they need to allow some space. Now, ho-hum, the best example I could find was the Vietnamese dong, currently a paltry 15,812 to the ever-dropping US dollar. Oh sure, it's an additional 4 digit positions, plus an extra separator or two. And yes, it does have the bonus of not needing a decimal value, showing the need for a flexible decimal area that can disappear.
But it's just not the same. }sigh{

On a more pratical note, the Azerbaijani manat will be re-denominated as of January 1, 2006. The new value is: 1 new manat = 5000 old manats. Looks like both currencies will remain valid until December 31, 2006, at which point the old manat will no longer be accepted as legal tender. The new manat will retain the old subdivision of 100 qapik (which will now, of course, mean something).

This begs the question - what of the Turkish lira subdivision? I mean, now they need one, and so they have one. 1 new Turkish lira = 100 new Turkish kurus. Were there old kurus? How long ago were they used? I mean, even the 5000 (old) Turkish lira coin is pretty much out of circulation!

Ah, numismatics!

( Mar 18 2005, 11:20:44 AM PST ) Permalink