Quote: "stratocaster"
Quote: "adanieluy"Is that not against the definition in guidelines?
"2.1.2. Banknote
A flexible piece of material that has a determined value (denomination) within a currency system."
Please note that these definitions are not finalised yet and are deliberately left a bit vague. They were done before the exonumia was split. We still need to first make some decisions (e.g. regarding patterns) then we can do an update.
However, there is no contradiction. Currency systems are systems of "monetary units". And monetary units are a generally accepted means of exchange. "Generally" being the keyword here: these are accepted everywhere within that issuer (all shops, all exchanges, etc)
The working definition of tokens and vouchers in exonumia is this:
A physical piece of material with a determined value, valid only for limited use:
- for specific products or goods
- within specific institutions, organisations or private companies
- for specific events
Which matches FECs, as explained by Houseofham.
I'm glad this is not the final version (and of course should keep the possibility to change in future, if needed).
Now, as you know, not every country have same rules and often what is granted in one, may not be in other.
We are discussing about Foreign Exchange Certificates; those documents were used in some Socialist countries (at least 15 countries used it, as I know, and most of them with very similar rules; I have not studied the usage and conditions of them, but what I saw so far, makes me think it only had a few differences, not important, from one country to other), the reason is that the governments wanted to avoid the people from the country (we can call them naturals), be able to have and handle foreign currencies; even in many cases the own and use of foreign currency was prohibited and also penalized. One of the strategies was the visitors should get the FExC when they reached the country exchanged by the currencies they took there, and when they left, the remaining FExC were exchanged back to the original currency they bought. Most common was there was no different rate for "sell" or "buy".
The FExC were only accepted in certain places, mostly hotels and shops specifically for visitors, so they were not accepted everywhere, as you said. So far, so good, but,
the national currency was not accepted on the places for visitors. So, the detail is that
the national currency was not accepted everywhere within that issuer, same as the FExC. If we stick to your definition, then also national currency should be exonumia, since it was not accepted everywhere. Of course this makes no sense.
Also please keep in mind the FExC were nominated in the same currency as the local currency, not after a foreign or a different rate.
They are different to Traveler's Checks, that were a document to give security to visitors, and only could be exchanged at certain banks or institutions, and were expressed on the currency of the original country. The most important feature was they only could be exchanged for the person showing in the check. It made them impossible to be exchanged if lost or robbed.
At Cuba, FExC were issued by National Bank of Cuba, the same issuer as Cuban Peso (coins and banknotes), after the deletion of FExC and INTUR coins, was created the Convertible Peso (CUC). The difference was that it had a different exchange rate than Cuban Peso (CUP); at start CUC was nearly paired to US Dollar (exchange rate: 1:1), and CUP was about 1/26 US. Dollar. Exchange rate had small variations during the vigency of CUC (1994-2020), and at start, the usage was the same as FExC; CUC only was accepted at certain places, and CUP at others, but there was not a place where both were accepted. On the very last years of the CUC existence, some CUC shops were allowed to accept CUP, and naturals were allowed to use CUC, and even own and use foreign currencies. This was a transition time, preparing the extinction of the CUC system.
I ask to the admins, when discuss banknotes/exonumia guidelines, please keep in mind coins, banknotes and FExC were all part of the same currency system, and it makes not sense to be in separate sections.
Additionally, as per your comments, please let me say all coins (circulating, commemoratives - circulating or not -, patterns, piedforts, trial strikes, etc.) should be part of coins section. Not only cause they are mere variations of the same currency system, but also cause when a collector looks for information, for sure would search into coins, and is not needed to make them to search in different places.
Just 10 options: you understand binary, or you don't.
Catalog Referee Coins, Banknotes & Exonumia: Uruguay, Cuba, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador, Zamunda, Parva Domus and more.