by banknotelover

Created on: April 17, 2009

I firmly believe that each nation should retain use of its own currency, and not to adopt an international currency.

Each nation has its own fiscal policy and economy. There are over 200 nations in the world, and each has a different type of economy. Some nations are richer, and some nations are poorer. You cannot possibly compare the economies of the United States with those of Laos, Swaziland or Burkina Faso, for example. If the United States were to enter into a monetary union with Canada and possibly Mexico, tbe purchasing power of the currency (being discussed as Amero) would be weaker than the current US and Canadian dollar but stronger than the Mexican peso, because the combined economy would not be as strong as the former two economies, and they would have to balance out with the economy of Mexico. Individual countries would have to give up their domestic fiscal policies, interest rates and economic soveriegnty. Countries may or may not want that to happen. I would seriously doubt that North Korea or Cuba would ever want to give up their economic sovereignty in favour of US fiscal policy if a worldwide currency was adopted (because the US is the world's leading economy, US fiscal policy would most likely be used worldwide).

Monetary unions can only exist between similar economies and similar economic power. If the US were to enter into a monetary union with say, Burkina Faso, it would almost certainly collapse because Burkina Faso's economy is so much weaker than the US economy. Similarly, a monetary union between the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) would be feasible because of cultural similarities, but not too good either, because the economies of Indonesia, Burma, the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia are weak, and the monetary union would have to rely on the stronger economies of Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and Thailand for support, which could drag down these economies and the purchasing power of their currency, because the rupiah, kyat, peso, kip, dong, riel and even the baht have low purchasing power and are weak currencies.

Adopting a common currency worldwide would also mean a loss of cultural heritage. Being a notaphilist, someone who collects banknotes, I would be extremely sad if the world entered into a common currency union. Thousands of different types of banknotes would disappear and there would only be a few left. It would also be impossible to depict the cultural and natural heritage of different countries on banknotes any more, as it is now, unless each country issued banknotes with a common obverse face and an individual reverse face. But then, there would also be disagreements on what to depict on the obverse. There would be many disagreements, and it would be difficult to agree on a compromise. Thousands of quality banknotes from existing currencies would disappear. The cost of replacing all these banknotes would be astronomical too.

Therefore, I would support each nation using its own currencies.

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