Hey y'all. I'm working on a couple of sci-fi stories, and I'm having trouble coming up with names for the currencies. One's kind of a cyberpunk/dieselpunk story with a corporate government in charge of distributing currencies, and the other is kind of like Firefly but from the point of view of someone living on one of the frontier planets instead of a spaceship captain. I absolutely refuse to use the term "credit" because it's so common. I've considered terms like "chip," "bit," and "antler," but nothing so far really feels right to me. Does anyone have any suggestions?

brownie points :)

charges

tokens

points

units

In keeping with your dieselpunk theme, 'therm'? I Googled 'units of energy' and found some interesting possibilities. Like 'Hartree' is apparently an atomic unit of energy. Or you could go the corporate sponsorship route and name the currency after one of the corporations that controls your government, like 'X Co Sponsored Chips' or something like that. I would suggest looking at Gary Shteyngart'sSuper Sad True Love Storyfor some ideas, it has a similar-feeling government structure, or perhaps the movieIdiocracy.

I like brownie points! It has a nice slang feel to it.

Thanks for the ideas. I'll try looking at some oddball units of measure like you suggested. I also considered the "Tenza Dollar," (with Tenza being the company,) but since one of my characters is a Tenza (it's a familial name,) I'm worried about over-use of the word.

Good news! I've settled on the names "morgan" and "chirik" for the Firefly-esque world. Morgan is after the banker J.P. Morgan, and "chirik" is a Russianslang term for 10 rubles, which is fitting for the world.

I'm still taking suggestions for the steam/dieselpunk story, though!

For the steam / dieselpunk, as it is one of the genres I particularly enjoy. Go with units of measurements based on liquid. I'm not sure what country you are in, but using either Gas (or whatever sci fi diesel fuel you are using) or Aether (or if using less fantasy regular steam) use units of volume.

Works better with steam based on what kind of SCIENCE! You have behind their inventions. "She received her canister of, 10 mega-liters of compressed Aether, Not bad for a days work."

If you are looking for more of a cash based system: Well, Diesel and Steam Punk both still use classic gold and paper currency if they are alt.fiction takes on the real world. I found that for me though, I created an entire system of underground economy based on the fuel sources. Only the unwashed masses dealt in anything as common as cash. Inventors, Heroes, Villains, and Vagabonds all dealt in whatever special fuel that drove the foundation of SCIENCE! (tm).

I mean, otherwise, really, how is that tiny one man airship really going to fly using 1950's tech for Diesel or 1800's tech for Steampunk? I mean, they are both still science fiction...

It's not a bad thought... Though I mus confess, I made a typo in my description. It's really more of a cyber/dieselpunk story. They've moved beyond steam, and have harnessed the power of the Earth Current, a plasma-like substance with psychoreactive properties, (your thoughts can control it.) I could make reference to telluric crystals (that's crystallized earth current) being used as currency somewhere...

Anobi wrote: I could make reference to telluric crystals (that's crystallized earth current) being used as currency somewhere...

Which would logically lead to the term "tells" as a unit of currency. I've also always liked the word "scrip" and have used it, the item, not the word, in the past.