History Main / AstronomicalExchangeRate

Sometimes economies in fiction just don't make sense. Enough money in one country to buy a hot dog will buy you a plane in another simply because one currency is just that much more valuable than the other.

Perhaps the other culture has a very stable and powerful economy. Perhaps they have certain elements in abundance. In any case, we are not talking about WorthlessYellowRocks or SolidGoldPoop (at least most of the time), it's real money on both sides. However, if you can buy a house for your country's price of a meal...[[note]]find a better neighborhood to live.[[/note]]
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!!Examples:

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[[folder: Anime ]]

* In ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'', the [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Transformer]] alien ghost drop entire piles of [[PlotCoupons Heaven Coins]], but even the thousand all of them dropped together weren't enough for more than one or two of the coins dropped by terrestrial ghosts.

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[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* ComicBook/DonaldDuck is offered three dollars for a full-size bomber plane which he accidentally gained ownership of. He refuses on the basis that the offer is far too low and is then offered thirty thousand trillion Vulcanovian Pesos. Shortly after accepting and receiving his money, Donald discovers that thirty thousand trillion Vulcanovian Pesos are worth around three dollars.

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[[folder: Film ]]

* In ''Film/EuroTrip'', the gang find themselves in a poor part of Slovakia with only $1.83 among them. It's enough money to get them the Presidential suite at the nicest hotel in town, with several feasts.
** Apparently, 5 cents is enough to open a new hotel.

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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* On ''Series/{{Taxi}}'', the drivers were pooling their money and then they get to Latka who has (something like) 20,000 Glotkies. When asked how much that is in American money he answers "Nothing".

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* Twoflower's gold in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''. A few weeks salary on the Counterweight Continent is enough to buy the entirety of Ankh-Morpork several times over.
** This is really just the fact that the Counterweight Continent happens to mint money with WorthlessYellowRocks. There's no real trade between them and Ankh-Morpork, which would be required for this trope to really work. That said, this trope is the reason there's no trade between them.
** Phrased by Vetinari as, [[YouFailEconomicsForever "We have nothing they want, and they have nothing we can afford."]]
* In the Second ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'', there is a scene where a teenager girl gets 10 Foundation credits as pocket money. When she exchanges it for local currency, she gets a "terribly thick sheaf". It was enough for a long shopping spree, which included a dozen dresses and a complete makeover.
* In ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'', the Space League does this to less advanced worlds. At one point, the protagonist remarks that this is the way ''he'' would have programmed it, and he is an ''interstellar scale crook''.

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[[folder: Radio ]]

* In ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', it is learned that while there is no money in the universe per se, there are three convertible currencies. However, the Altarian dollar had recently collapsed, the Flainian pobble bead is exchangeable only for other Flainian pobble beads, and the Triganic Pu's exchange rate of six Ningis to one Pu is negated because a Ningi is a giant triangular coin over 6,800 miles long, and thus nobody has collected enough to own one Pu.
** Towards the end of the Primary phase, the Golgafrinchams--who have landed on Earth two million years before the Vogons destroyed it--have made leaves legal tender, with the going rate along the lines of three deciduous forests buying one ship's peanut.

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[[folder: Roleplay ]]

* In AGeeksGuideDeathworldEarth, [[{{GlobalCurrency}} Credits]] are worth ten-thousand dollars, and ''Galactic'' Credits are worth 50 Credits.

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Played with in ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]]''. The exchange rate starts out at about 100 Mushroom Coins=10 Beanbean Coins, but near the end of the game, you win a bet for 100 ''trillion'' Mushroom coins... and learn that in Beanbean coins, which is all you can spend in the game, this amounts to... 99. The Mario brothers, they cannot win!
* In the setting for ''EveOnline'', one ISK (the in-game currency) is said to be enough to retire to any planet and live like a king for the rest of your life. That said, living in space is essentially living like a GOD, what with the immortality and all.
** Get's pretty ridiculous when you buy things for billions upon billions of ISK. That's ''entire economies'' that you could crash. With a ''fraction of that''.
** Note that this is an InformedAbility that doesn't really work when you try to translate it to the prices of stuff in the game. 1000 bullets for your ship's machine gun selling for an entire planet's GDP? Don't think about it too hard...

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Jungle Love" (The One With Chris running away to join the Peace Corps in South America) when the family come after Chris, Peter becomes the richest man in the country, with US$37.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' "Treehouse of Horror II", Homer is caught smuggling a huge amount of illegal items and is charged a fine of two american dollars.
** In another episode, Homer uses this to bribe a museum guard ''in Canada''.
-->'''Guard:''' You'll have to leave now, sir. The museum's closing.
-->'''Homer:''' Perhaps an ''American dollar'' will change your mind?
-->'''Guard:''' U.S. currency! What time would you like your breakfast?

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Doesn't really work this way in real life. A dollar is worth around a thousand Franc Congolais, and this helps travellers going to Congo with their food budget, but the actual worth of stuff doesn't vary ''that'' greatly. And even if it does, it'll be mostly due to lack of shipping costs.
** It might even turn out to be worth less in the local currency (depending on where you are) because of the extra money needed for American standbys, like clean drinking water, beds without bugs, food that's safe to eat, and reliable transportation.
** The ''difference in living standards'' is a far greater problem than actual cost of goods, and [[CrapsackWorld breeds crime like nothing else]]. If an official of the Third World countries can be bribed with a few dollars, the price of a UsefulNotes/McDonalds' meal, [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney how easy would it be to do whatever you want, with no fear of reprisals]]?
* Examples of this can happen when a country creates or relaunches a currency. In 1945-46, Hungary experienced hyperinflation on an epic scale. At its worst, prices were doubling every 15 hours. In the end, the government issued a new currency (the forint) to replace the dying one (the pengő). The exchange rate was a sickening 400 octillion pengő to every forint. That's a 4 followed by 29 zeros. ''This is literally astronomical.'' Every single pengő note in existence, combined, would not have been enough to exchange for 1/10 of a forint. The pengő wages you had earned in previous years, your whole life's savings, were instantly worthless.
** A more recent example would be the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe from 2007 til 2009. At its peak, the exchange rate from Zimbabwe dollars to US dollars was roughly 10^30. Eventually they gave up and started using more stable currencies from its neighbors South Africa and Botswana, as well as the Euro, pound sterling, and US dollar (the last of which serving as the ''de facto'' currency of Zimbabwe's government). As of 2013 they've yet to reinstate their own currency, and aren't likely to do so in the near future.
** One of the more well-known historical examples would be the hyperinflation of post World War I Germany, which happened when [[ArtisticLicenseEconomics the German government during the war decided to fund it entirely by borrowing money.]] The Germans actually ''did'' have a plan during the war to counter that. Unfortunately for the Germans, the plan was exactly the same as the Entente plan to deal with ''their'' borrowing to fund the war effort -- forced war reparations. For obvious reasons ''one'' side or the other were going to have to be dealing with high inflation.
* As long as people are willing to pay real money for in-game currency, it will have a value, but it might not be much. This can be compounded if the trope takes place within the game as well. One USD is worth about 25 million ISK in EVE Online, and one ISK is enough to live like a king for the rest of your life.

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[[AC:Anime]]

[[AC:Comic Books]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:{{Live Action TV}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:Radio]]
* In ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', it is learned that while there is no money in the universe per se, there are three convertible currencies. However, the Altarian dollar had recently collapsed, the Flainian pobble bead is exchangeable only for other Flainian pobble beads, and the Triganic Pu's exchange rate of six Ningis to one Pu is negated because a Ningi is a giant triangular coin over 6,800 miles long, and thus nobody has collected enough to own one Pu.

[[AC:Roleplay]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

[[AC:Real Life]]

* In the Second ''{{Foundation}}'', there is a scene where a teenager girl gets 10 Foundation credits as pocket money. When she exchanges it for local currency, she gets a "terribly thick sheaf". It was enough for a long shopping spree, which included a dozen dresses and a complete makeover.

* In ''TheStainlessSteelRat'', the Space League does this to less advanced worlds. At one point, the protagonist remarks that this is the way ''he'' would have programmed it, and he is an ''interstellar scale crook''.

** One of the more well-known historical examples would be the hyperinflation of post World War I Germany, which happened when [[ArtisticLicenseEconomics the German government during the war decided to fund it entirely by borrowing money.]]

* Donald Duck is offered three dollars for a full-size bomber plane which he accidentally gained ownership of. He refuses on the basis that the offer is far too low and is then offered thirty thousand trillion Vulcanovian Pesos. Shortly after accepting and receiving his money, Donald discovers that thirty thousand trillion Vulcanovian Pesos are worth around three dollars.

* In ''{{Euro Trip}}'', the gang find themselves in a poor part of Slovakia with only $1.83 among them. It's enough money to get them the Presidential suite at the nicest hotel in town, with several feasts.

** The ''difference in living standards'' is a far greater problem than actual cost of goods, and [[CrapsackWorld breeds crime like nothing else]]. If an official of the Third World countries can be bribed with a few dollars, the price of a McDonalds' meal, [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney how easy would it be to do whatever you want, with no fear of reprisals]]?

* In ''TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', it is learned that while there is no money in the universe per se, there are three convertible currencies. However, the Altarian dollar had recently collapsed, the Flainian pobble bead is exchangeable only for other Flainian pobble beads, and the Triganic Pu's exchange rate of six Ningis to one Pu is negated because a Ningi is a giant triangular coin over 6,800 miles long, and thus nobody has collected enough to own one Pu.

* In the ''FamilyGuy'' episode "Jungle Love" (The One With Chris running away to join the Peace Corps in South America) when the family come after Chris, Peter becomes the richest man in the country, with US$37.
* In ''TheSimpsons'' "Treehouse of Horror II", Homer is caught smuggling a huge amount of illegal items and is charged a fine of two american dollars.

* In ''TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', it is learned that while there is no currency in the universe per se, there are three convertible currencies. However, the Altarian dollar had recently collapsed, the Flainian pobble bead is exchangeable only for other Flainian pobble beads, and the Triganic Pu's exchange rate of six Ningis to one Pu is negated because a Ningi is a giant triangular coin over 6,800 miles long, and thus nobody has collected enough to own one Pu.