Britain has the Pound, America has the Dollar, and Vietnam has the Dong so it is only right that our country has a currency to call its very own. The creation of a new currency is normally the work of high minded economists, not Kings, but in an attempt to save money I thought I ought to give it a go.

The Interdependent Occupational Unit, or the IOU as I like to call it, is the world’s newest currency. Yes that’s right we now have our very own currency based on the old adage that time is money. You give time to our new country and in return you earn IOUs. Splendid! I haven’t worked out how we are going to trade them yet but I’m sure we’ll work it out. In the meantime you can consider yourself to be shareholders in our new country.

The tricky part has been establishing exactly what the IOU should be worth. Most countries in the world seem to have started by basing their currency on a commodity. For example in the UK the pound used to represent a pound of sterling silver (hence pounds sterling). A pound of silver is not something you can easily carry around, unless you have very large pockets or a handy wheelbarrow. So the invention of paper currency allowed people to carry their money with them, and trade it easily based on the notion that the note could be reclaimed later for its worth in silver. A quick recce of our territory quickly revealed that a chariot coaster set, a small china dog and a miniature of booze weren’t really going to help. (click to view my wealth)

The one commodity that I did have a lot of was time. Can time really be worth money? Yes it can. All around the world there are a host of communities that have created their own currencies, currencies that are backed by the value of time. The town of Ithaca in New York has been using a currency called the Ithaca Hour for more than a decade. One Ithaca Hour is the equivalent to one hour of basic labour ($10 US Dollars). Once earned the currency can be traded with other members of the community including local shops.

So for those noble citizens that have spent time posting their thoughts on our country’s forums you will see that I have already issued you your very own IOUs – each post equals 0.1 of an IOU, so some of you may already be amongst my nation’s burgeoning super rich… congratulations.