Centennial Union Dollars and Reichsmarks

CUDs and RMs

Overview

The Centennial Union Dollar (CUD) is one of the two currencies of the Yytuskian Federation. Officially introduced with the beginning of the Mills Plan on 1. January 2000 CE, the CUD replaced the former Reichsmark that had been in circulation for around three hundred years. While the CUD is the de facto currency in circulation, RMs are still fair use as currency across Yytuskia. Due to a large number of bills that were still in circulation at the beginning of the Mills Plan, the adoption of a dual currency was - in most cases - a sound idea. Through the Mills Plan, most companies are sending the older bills back to the mint to slowly switch them with newer ones, while banking establishments are doing so free of charge for citizens. On the international stage, the Federation only deals in trade with the newer CUD.
Both paper and electronic versions of the CUD currency is in use in Yytuskia, while the RM is only in circulation in paper form as it's a (technically) defunct currency, and would be useless to transfer into electronic form. This is eased as most banks accept RMs into their coffers, changing the currency into CUD free of charge for their customers. Credit and debit cards in use and owned by many prominent banks, which is much easier to use than fishing around your wallet for bills and coin. Most Yytuskians use Ecards (as they are called) instead of cash due to its easiness in use, although paper currency is still floating.

Centennial Union Dollar (CUD)

The idea for a new currency to the RM was thought of even before the Centennial Union Dollar was introduced with the Mills Plan. On 1. January 2000 CE, in part, to revitalize and rebuild the Yytuskian economy, the Mills Plan introduced the CUD. The devastation of the 1984 Civil War which lasted five years which was followed by the general ineptitude of the communist government that ruled from 1989 to 1999 CE forced the new government to implement the Mills Plan. Originally, when the currency was being made, it was called the Centennial Dollar at first due to its close proximity to the turning of the century. However, due to a close index name to the Cascadian Dollar (CD), the name was changed to add "Union" to distingish the difference.
After the year and a half of design and preparation, the CUD was put into mint in late 2001 CE. primarily used by the Yytuskian government to fund major parts of the Mills Plans without oversaturating the Yytuskian economy with new bills. The way this occurred was quite simple: the government would pay the various companies contracted in the Plan with the newly-minted CUDs, but still allowed the older RM to continue circulation. With the various taxes put into place, the RMs in the economy would circle their way back to the government, where they would then be burned and replaced with newer CUDs. The main hinge of this ploy was that the companies that were paid in CUDs were - under NO circumstances - allowed to use the new money until a certain time. This way, the CUDs would flood the market causing inflation in the currency, while the regular RMs would make their way back into the government's mint and be destroyed. This would continue until such a time where the mixed amount of CUDs and RMs would equal the amount of RMs and the national GDP, wherein the CUDs would be allowed to be used.

CUD Bills

CUDs come in several increments of increasing amounts of cash, with their own basis built upon the RMs own increments. Starting with a 5CUD, the amount moved up to 10CUD, 20CUD, 50CUD, and finally the 100CUD. The designs on the bills are representative of the Yytuskian culture; famous landmarks, peoples, et cetera are on the bills, with sometimes commemorative designs being introduced for added "flavor".
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CUD Coins

CUDs also came in coin form that was based on smaller RM bills, ranging in increments from the 0.05CUD, to the 0.10CUD, 0.25CUD, 1CUD, and 2CUD coin. Originally there was a 0.01CUD coin, but that was pulled from circulation after it was deemed too expensive to manufacture the small copper coin. The coins all have their own designs on them, featuring faces of important figures like the Kaiser or Primerfuhrer, or commemorative designs much like the bills.
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Reichsmark (RM)

The Reichsmark dates back about three hundred years in Yytuskian history, to the unification of Yytuskia into a federation under the Kaiserin Marie von Fürstenmold. It was first put into circulation around 1728 CE, and quickly became the main currency of the Federation, swiftly beating out gold, silver, and copper coins in terms of usability. The paper currency remained unchanged until 1936 CE, where the fascist government - in order to fix their spending budget - decided to do away with several small currency bills like the RM0.01, and the RM0.02, as it was much easier to force the economy to "round up or down". This "odd currency" was easier to handle once the small bills disappeared, and many see this as one of the many ideas to help stop the circulation of the 0.01CUD coin as well.
After the introduction of the Mills Plan in 2000 CE, RMs were officially taken out of the minting process with the idea that the CUD would replace them. Many Marks still are floating in circulation, although this number dwindles day by day. Nowadays the RM is seen as a dying currency, or as a cultural history item, with many de-marked bills entering personal homes as art.

RM Bills

Reichsmarks were the basis for the CUD, which only makes sense for them to have the same increment ratio as the CUD. However the RM differs from the CUD in that it has no coins, rather, the smaller currencies are bills much like the larger currencies. This means that there's the RM0.05, RM0.10, RM0.25, RM1, and RM2, as well as the large bills like the RM5, RM10, RM20, RM50, and the RM100.
The Marks are rather bland in terms of design, listing only the amount the bill was, and having the coat of arms of the Kaiserreich and Fuhrerreich on them respectively. The much older Kaiserreich bills are highly sought after as collector's items, seeing how few of them there are.
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Rounding

Unsurprisingly, the difference between most currencies in the world and Yytuskia's is the missing single cent, the 0.01CUD, and RM0.01 respectively. This has brought a rather strange effect on the Yytuskian economy, known as the "rounding effect", where the pricing on all goods and services in the country are rounded to the nearest 0.05CUD or 0.10CUD respectively. While this might be an issue in some other countries, Yytuskia's history of having no single cent currency has helped build up an idea of the "rounding effect", and many Yytuskians merely care little for the difference in currencies between countries.
Internationally, the Yytuskian government tries to keep trade spending to an even amount, or even rounds up or down on some deals with allies and neighbors. This usually isn't a problem for most, unless the amount dips below the $0.03 cent level wherein the government rounds down, but this has been dealt with in the recent years by merely doing away with the small change in big, international trade deals.