Spesmilo
Encyclopedia
Decimal
The decimal numeral system has ten as its base. It is the numerical base most widely used by modern civilizations....
international currency
Currency
In economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...
, proposed in 1907 by René de Saussure
René de Saussure
René de Saussure was a Swiss Esperantist and professional mathematician, who composed important works about Esperanto and interlinguistics from a linguistic viewpoint...
and used before the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
by a few British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
banks, primarily the Ĉekbanko esperantista.
The spesmilo was equivalent to one thousand spesoj, and worth 0.733 grams of gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, which at the time was about one-half United States dollar
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
, two shilling
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
s in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, one Russian ruble
Russian ruble
The ruble or rouble is the currency of the Russian Federation and the two partially recognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Formerly, the ruble was also the currency of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union prior to their breakups. Belarus and Transnistria also use currencies with...
, or 2½ Swiss franc
Swiss franc
The franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia. Although not formally legal tender in the German exclave Büsingen , it is in wide daily use there...
s. On 17 November 2011, that quantity of gold would be worth about $40 USD, £26 GBP, 1251 rubles, and 37 Swiss francs.
The basic unit, the speso (from Latin spes
Spes
In ancient Roman religion, Spes was the goddess of hope. Multiple temples to Spes are known, and inscriptions indicate that she received private devotion as well as state cult.-Republican Hope:...
, "hope". spesmilo is Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
for "a thousand of spesoj"), was purposely made very small to avoid fractions.
Sign
The Sm character, called Spesmilsigno in Esperanto, is a monogramMonogram
A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series of uncombined initials is properly referred to as a...
of a cursive
Cursive
Cursive, also known as joined-up writing, joint writing, or running writing, is any style of handwriting in which the symbols of the language are written in a simplified and/or flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing easier or faster...
capital "S", from the tail of which emerges an "m". The currency sign is often typeset as the separate letters Sm. The character has been assigned the Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
codepoint ₷ and is included in Unicode version 5.2.
See also
- The steloSteloThe Stelo was from 1945 to 1993 a monetary unit of Esperantists, one of whose aims was to achieve a single world currency. Attempts at an earlier currency, the Speso, with derived units like the Spesmilo, were cut short by the First World War...
was another currency unit used by the Universala Ligo from 1942 to the 1990s. - The monoSennacia BankoSennacia Banko is a bank issuing the currency Mono intended to become the single world currency. It is organized by unofficial Esperantist organization Heliko , founded by Daniel Salomon...
is a current esperantist international currency - An Esperanto version of the board game MonopolyMonopoly (game)Marvin Gardens, the leading yellow property on the board shown, is actually a misspelling of the original location name, Marven Gardens. The misspelling was said to be introduced by Charles Todd and passed on when his home-made Monopoly board was copied by Charles Darrow and thence to Parker...
uses play money in denominations of spesmilo.