Big Brother Would Be Proud - One Coin For The World

I came across an article online this morning that really grabbed my attention - nothing less than the announcement of a new coin that is intended to circulate the world over - the eurodollar!

Big Brother conspiracy theorists can rest easy however (on this subject anyway), as the Future World Currency turns out to be a personal initiaitive of an Italian journalist by the name of Dr Sandro Sassoli.

That Dr Sassoli does not have a professional background in economics does not seem to have stopped him from advancing discussion of a currency that could be used around the entire world, something that has previouslt been the domain of despots, emperors and kings. To be fair, judging by the copy from his website, on the surface of it, it does seem his context for the premise of this project is more humanitarian than economic.

No blue-sky project of the kind that proposes to dominate unite the world with a coin can be complete without a manifesto, which you will be pleased to know has been drafted. Among other things, the eurodollar is to be "...a new coin with a high level of protection against counterfeits. In short, an “intelligent coin” that can communicate with mobile phones, give and receive inputs and be recognized as fake or authentic."

Please take that as a cue to put your aluminium foil hat back on! The idea of a coin that is to be used the world over that can communicate and is presumably issued by some yet to be announced entity raises far more questions than it does provide answers. I expect that any of the hard currency blogs around the world that have taken this initiative even a little seriously will be cranking overtime on it.

Let's consider the background of Dr Sassoli a little further - he apparently worked on the ITALIA 90 World Cup campaign, promoting a range of products tied to the official mascot and logo, and inventing the Platinum Ball Trophy. As Chief of Special Programs, he developed a “Year 2000 Medals” project on behalf of the Italian State Mint. He was also responsible for the “Gold Books” program, which featured pages in real gold, and official celebrations to mark the end of the Italian Lira (The Last Day of the Lira at Rome’s Trevi fountain, and the Monument to the Lira, made by real coins). As Head of Special Projects for the Italian State Mint and Printing Bureau, in 1997-98 Dr. Sassoli came up with the idea of a new project for 2000, entitled “Gold for the Third Millennium – The world united by the wings of peace”. The project involved the joint efforts of the Italian State Mint, the Royal Canadian Mint, the Cape Mint of South Africa, the Casa de Moneda (Mexico), and the Perth Mint Australia.

Taking the above facts into consideration, it could be a very sophisticated pre-launch PR campaign by Dr Sassoli to involve a number of the most powerful politicians in the world (along with other prominent folks such as Pope John Paul II and Sophia Lauren) just before the release of a series of rather valuable "patterns" that can be sold to collectors around the world. I'll take odds that such a product will materialize in the near future - in a range of metals and price points!