How much are credits compared to the USD? How much is a lot of credits? Bounties seems to be im the tens of thousands even for high profile people. Are Imperial Credits worth more than Republic Credits?
Credits appear to be a Fiat Currency, so their value is based on a mix of commodity and service prices dictated by the market (inflation/deflation) and perceived strength of the issuing government. Republic Credits are not regarded as a viable currency in Hutt Space in TPM, while in TTT New Republic and Imperial credits are officially non convertible, but unofficially within about 50% value of each other.
"That's *burp* twenty-five, Morty. Twenty-five -- not twent-five. Twent-five isn't *burp* a number. Except in that universe where there's no such thing as the letter Y..."
Yeah it's probably more difficult to figure out a credit's worth in dollars than it is to compare in universe currencies to each other.
Is anyone aware of credit quotes for common, everyday items? That could give us at least a broad comparison. For example, is a cup of Caff a half-credit, one, or ten credits? I think the easiest to find are vehicle and weapon prices, due to sourcebooks, but those can vary according to so many things that don't effect everyday commodities.
According to FFG, a standard-issue ration (just a meal -- not any special super-sustaining ration) is 5 credits. A canteen is 7 credits. There's also that whole Jogan fruit thing in TCW; Threepio says 4 credits sounds fair for 4 fruits, but the vendor says 4 credits each, so 16... and this eventually goes up to 32, so 8 credits each when he's trying to rip him off. If we were to rely on Threepio's logic and compare Jogan fruit to, say, mangoes (accounting for size and seasonal rarity), they're apparently $2/lb on average, and average at a half-pound, so... $1 for one mango, just like Jogan fruit. That doesn't sound right to me, but I've just correlated a lot of very smart and complicated Google information, so it can't be wrong: If Threepio's correct, it's a 1/1 comparison.
Conversion rates are hard to do because of totally different economic structures and all, but old EU at least when it comes to precious metals (like gold or silver) from the WEG Pirate Sourcebook it should be about 1 Credit to 2.5 US Dollar. Whilst Dinnig at Dex did give us prices for food at at his place and in average hint at a 1 to 1 rate, one has to consider that food prices on Coruscant are properly pretty high. So I personally would still go with the 1 to 2.5 thing, whilst you of course still have to consider that prices will vary absurdly from planet to planet and likely even from certain locations on a planet to another.
In TCW, there was that one part of Dooku Captured where Hondo pulled a Dr. Evil "If you want the Sith Lord (Dooku), it will cost you a million credits!" Palpatine et al. didn't seem to laugh. But I guess they didn't take him seriously either since they sent Jar Jar out with the ransom money. In the old EU, Jango agreed to do go through the whole cloning business for 5 million credits, which was what Lama Su claimed was a "considerable" price.
From the look of the sequel trilogy, it seems that 10 quintillion credits in 34 ABY will buy you 1 jogan fruit.
I think in Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need To Know - there was a reference to the price of a meal in one of "the best restaurants" being thousands of credits.
I don't think it's a fiat currency. It's known that things like Aurodium, Nova Crystals and possibly even some resources like Tibanna back up wealth. We know that tibanna gas is an instantly renewable resource on the gas giants it originates from, so if you get yourself a tibanna gas mine somewhere you're pretty much set-for-life Tibanna baron and your family's future is equally guaranteed. This is why I imagine we have houses like Organa that are like thousands of years old, yet still continue to exist and continue to be relevant. You also have Tagge who claim descent from the founders of the Republic. So because resources in the SW Universe don't 'expire' unless say, a BDZ happens, wealth's usually concentrated and the overall galactic economy is pretty 'stable' so crisis's are rare. We hear devastation of economies of entire planets, systems and regions, but it never, ever has an effect on the Galaxy.
Those are popular alternative currencies/trade goods precisely because regular Credits are fiat Since when? Except of course for the ones that do and get used up by the technology of the GFFA or by the virtue of them being consumed (like Spice). Except of course for that giant economic slump that gets mentioned in TTT and the very fact that the New Republic never really gets its economy into an orderly fashion until after the Vong war. Even the movies and TCW make it rather clear that no one really takes Old Republic money seriously before or during the Clone Wars. Aftermath, for all its shortcomings, also actually goes into it.
Gas giants like Bespin have been producing tibanna for thousands of years - not even a dent in their supplies. Manaan has had kolto in the Old Republic and it's still being used as a lesser healing method than bacta into the Imperial era. That's a few thousand years, again, not even a dent in it's supply. Spice flunctuates, it's not a 'hard' resource like these 'special resources' that never, ever expire. And yeah, you bring up a good point about the NR Economy, but that's the NR economy alone. The New Republic never really came very close to achieving full galactic control. It was the Galactic Alliance that did. Also of course they don't take Old Republic money seriously, the overall centralized republic system was more or less only de jure in effect until Sheev became Chancellor, and it was finally centralized when he became Emperor. Also, according to Twin Stars of Kira, the Muunilinst IGBC supported the NR and Imperial Remnant currencies through the Nova Crystals and renewable spire resources of Muunilinst, so while the Old Republic currencies were fiat, the New Republic and Remnant ones most certainly aren't. With a world like that under the Remnant's command, it's no wonder the Fel Empire managed to beat the Galactic Alliance within 3 years. Meanwhile, planet Krann was responsible for the New Republic's supply of Nova Crystals apparently.
Still doesn’t mean it is unlimited, though it should not even be all that valuable given that you can use various alternative materials. And their planet is now a literal dump because of it. Still fiat, just means they have reserves of something to back the currency (see national gold reserves) and the IBC also backed Old Republic money.
I mentioned you'd end up pretty well-off, and Tibanna could be used to bolster a local economy, for sure. But it is all that galactically important? Nah. Nova Crystals seem to be really, really valuable though. SWGB sources directly say it's used as currency (again it's a game though, so I guess it could be counted as under gameplay mechanics, but other more direct sources like Plagueis mention it's use directly), often enough in the Outer Rim. Also is it really a fiat currency if it's noted that the currency is directly backed? The USD is off the gold standard right now, and it's a fiat currency. The Credit, on the other hand, is directly on the 'Nova Crystal' standard as pointed out by various sources.
Yes Nova Crystals are valuable and used as a currency in some parts of the galaxy and some governments use them to bolster its reserve (just like the IBC uses giant spires of gold, platinum etc. on Muunlist as backing but not actual money), but their money is still usually hinted to be fiat, the only major exception actually being the Hutts and some worlds under their influence which use Gold coins, and interesting enough the Corporate Sector which has normal, purely digital money running side by side with Vertex crystals. Whilst the Republic is said to have dropped its Aurodium standard thousands of years before its fall.
That's actually interesting. Was it ever stated what was the result to it dropping it's aurodium standard to become a fiat currency? I would've thought a futuristic sci-fi society would stick to having it's economy being resource-based.
What I found interesting was that Luke was upset for getting about 2 thousand credits for his used landspeeder, but thought he could buy his own starship for a little more than 10,000 - which is also around what Solo owed Jabba - so the "bounty so big you'll never be able to go near a civilized system" was probably less than that.
After a bit of digging: According to the Star Wars Sourcebook, both 1st and 2nd edition (p. 128), Han Solo's Debts to Jabba the Hutt are as follows: - Jettisoned spice cargo: 12,400 credits - Dead employee (Greedo): 4,100 credits - Loss of services (Millenium Falcon): 125,640 credits to date (based on last cycle's performance) - Bounty hunter notices: 320 credits - Boba Fett's expenses: 5000 credits to date (based on a rate of 500 credits per day) - Additional bounty hunter fees: 2000 credits to date (based on a rate of 50 credits per day per hunter) - 50% interest: 74,730 credits to date Total: 224,190 credits to date (so, 10 days after their meeting in ANH - using Boba's figure).
