Mark (Pern)
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Marks are the fictional currency of the planet Pern in the novels by Anne McCaffery. Marks are circulated in the form of coins made of wood, apparently as a fiat currency (though, it should be noted that, due to Thread, wood has traditionally been a scare resource during most of Pern's history), whose value is set by a meeting of the political and economic leaders of the planet, apparently as a command economy. The coins occur in the denominations 1⁄32, 1⁄16, 1⁄8, ¼, ½, 1, 2, 5, and 10 marks, with a few 100-mark coins for very large transactions.
All the coins are the same size, denominations being indicated by a stamped number. If the number has a line above it, then it represents a unit fraction (that is, 32 with a line above would be 1⁄32), whereas a line below the number indicates an integer. The ½ and 2 mark coins are the only ones that could be potentially confused. It is unclear why the colony's founders decided to use a binary division of the currency, nor why they declined to continue the binary pattern in multiples (i.e., having coins of 1, 2, 4 and 8 marks).
Every craft produces its own marks, and the supply is kept constant, new marks only being produced to replace old ones (and, presumably, to accommodate population growth?)
The mark is a moderately large amount of money. An exact exchange rate is impossible to determine due to the differences between our economy and theirs. More information on its value can be found in The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern, which will not be repeated here due to potential copyright concerns.
