Standard Mark

The Standard Mark (: ϓ ; : SMK; Meriadni: Vanlingmerke, plural Vanlingmerker) is the official of the Kingdom of Meriad and its constituent regions and overseas territories, as defined in the Standard Coinage Act of 1777. It is divided into 100 brikker (sing. brikke), although they are uncommonly used.

Standard Marks are issued by the government-owned central bank Mjeren Bank, and are overseen by the Ministry of Finance.

Names
The full official name of the Standard Mark (Vanlingmerke) is generally only used in formal contexts or in situations in which distinction from other currencies in necessary. In common parlance, the name Mark (or Merke in Meriadni). The name of the currency originated from prior to the adoption of a national currency, when five monetary systems were used throughout the kingdom. Four of there five currencies were some form of 'mark' currency, so the new national currency made to standardize financial transactions nationwide was logically called the Standard Mark.

History
The idea of a centralized currency overseen by the Meriadni government was proposed in 1774 by Parliamenterikrepresentant Marius Rogne to combat the economic chaos caused by the widespread usage of five different currency standards in various parts of the country. While the initial proposal was never written up into a formal piece of legislation, it did receive a measure of approval from the Hall of Jarls as a whole. In 1776, a bill was passed by the Hall of Jarls to establish a government organ, the Ministry of Finance, in order to monitor the Meriadni economy and to investigate the feasibility of establishing a single nationwide currency. The Ministry of Finance presented its findings on the topic of a national currency to the Hall of Jarls the following year, and the Hall voted in near-unanimity to establish a common currency, to be known as the Vanlingmerke, or Standard Mark.

Initially, the currency was only in bill form, and had no subunits. In 1781, the Ministry of Finance introduced the brikke, which subdivided each Mark into 100 parts. Brikker were initially circulated in bill form only, until 1, 5, 20, and 50 brikker coins were added to circulation in 1795.

Coins
Since the 1795 introduction of brikke coins, followed in 1823 by Standard Mark coins, there have existing 1, 5, and 10 SMK denominations of coins, as well as 1ҕ, 5ҕ, 10ҕ, 20ҕ, and 50ҕ coins. In 2003, Mjeren Bank formally discontinued the production of 1ҕ and 5ҕ coins, and allowed them to pass out of circulation. Because of the relatively small number of small-denomination coins in circulation at the time, they are now valuable as collector's items, and can be sold for thousands of times their minted price. Small values of brikker are only infrequently used, and sales taxed applied in stores are generally rounded upwards to the nearest 5 brikker.

Possible Currency Signs
⥉

ⱱ

Ṽ