Gold was now a waste product in the release of atomic energy, and it
was plain that no metal could be the basis of the monetary system
again. Henceforth all coins must be token coins. Yet the whole world was
accustomed to metallic money, and a vast proportion of existing
human relationships had grown up upon a cash basis, and were almost
inconceivable without that convenient liquidating factor. It seemed
absolutely necessary to the life of the social organisation to have some
sort of currency, and the council had therefore to discover some real
value upon which to rest it. Various such apparently stable values as
land and hours of work were considered. Ultimately the government,
which was now in possession of most of the supplies of energy-releasing
material, fixed a certain number of units of energy as the value of a
gold sovereign, declared a sovereign to be worth exactly twenty marks,
twenty-five francs, five dollars, and so forth, with the other current
units of the world, and undertook, under various qualifications and
conditions, to deliver energy upon demand as payment for every sovereign
presented. On the whole, this worked satisfactorily. They saved the
face of the pound sterling. Coin was rehabilitated, and after a phase
of price fluctuations, began to settle down to definite equivalents and
uses again, with names and everyday values familiar to the common run of
people.
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