Monetary unit used on B5?

[kochia]

This came up on another board.

What did they use for money on the station?

I know that Centauri ducets were mentioned but there had to be one central coin used or it would have gotten very confusing.

Was there some kind of credit system used?

[Spidy]

The most often mentioned monetary unit is the "credit", and I think that's the offical currency of the Earth Alliance. Some prefer to deal in hard currency, however, so Centauri ducuts are sometimes used.

[kochia]

Thanks spidy, that's what I thought

[Dr Maturin]

They don't have money. They work to better themselves and the rest of humanity.

[kochia]

That'll be the day

[Redrake]

They don't have money. They work to better themselves and the rest of humanity.

Too much Star Trek?

[AaronB]

They don't have money. They work to better themselves and the rest of humanity.

Didn't they use latinum?

[Doktor]

They don't have money. They work to better themselves and the rest of humanity.

Boldy going where no plausible story has gone before

[Dr Maturin]

Didn't they use latinum?

Gold-pressed latinum. And that's only on planets and stations where currency is required due to other races' economic systems.

[David Panzer]

Wasn't Morden able to see the galaxy on less than 30 Altarian dollars?

[KoshN]

Wasn't Morden able to see the galaxy on less than 30 Altarian dollars?

Well, in Interludes and Examinations, he paid off his informant in diamonds, temporarily, before he had the informant killed, and retrieved the diamonds.

[Radhil]

Wasn't Morden able to see the galaxy on less than 30 Altarian dollars?

That was supposed to be a daily sum, I though. 30 Altarian dollars a day.

Their market crashed anyhow.

[Ranger1]

If you look at the big picture then its something like this:
Since all countries are represented by a single president (Earth Alliance),then the obvious guess is that all countries has a single currency (we don't have the name for this currency).

In the B5 universe you have crystals which can hold so much data,then something like a credit chip card isn't far from our own real life (Visa for example),in my point of view i can see that a single card will hold all our info and money (credit) amount and will be much safer then just a simple credit card (which in our days is quite safe).

If you look at ItB you will notice that G'kar saying to that EA official that the human market value is quite low (something like that i don't remember word for word),in the B5 universe which humans has contacts with other planets,it is necessary to make money a universal thing which all planets can agree to (we think of diamonds and gold as a rare resource,but on other planets they can grow on trees).

[grumbler]

Remember that Sheridan and delenn both paid for their copies of Universe Today in the same fashion from the same vending machine, so I expect that there was some sort of exchange rate from whatever one race used to whatever another race used. On B5, it makes sense that this would simply be a "credit" without much (if anything) in the way of physical representation. Knight Two pays off Benson by depositing creadits in Bensen's account (and Benson pays off his debts the same way) - not something either would have done if they could have paid in "cash" since it was easily traced.

On planets, they probably used something like "cash" at least part of the time, as many transactions would occur informally without anything like a bank nearby.

I sorta wonder how Captain Lockley paid the lurker BBQ sandwich vender in "The Rules of the Game," though. You wouldn't think lurkers would have credit-transfer facilities. Anybody remember if she hand over a credit chip, or does she pay "cash" or just walk away with the sandwich knowing the vender cannot sic security on her?

[Jan]

I sorta wonder how Captain Lockley paid the lurker BBQ sandwich vender in "The Rules of the Game," though. You wouldn't think lurkers would have credit-transfer facilities. Anybody remember if she hand over a credit chip, or does she pay "cash" or just walk away with the sandwich knowing the vender cannot sic security on her?

I'm not able to pull up the DVD at the moment but the script reads:

DRAZI VENDOR: Here it is, Captain Lochley.

She takes the wrapped sandwich, gives him a coin, and they move on.


HTH,

Jan