Spesmilo

Speso (from French " espèce " (money places ) ) was the project of a currency unit that was used Esperanto circles as unit of account. The currency was designed in 1907 by René de Saussure to facilitate communication in the ( multinational ) Esperanto community and was used up until the First World War on a small scale by British and Swiss banks. A similar concept was from 1945 to 1993 the Stelo.

Units

The currency was based on the decimal system, which is normally not the Speso, but the Spesmilo (1000 Speso, Symbol: Sm) is taken as the starting value:

1 Spesmilo = 10 Spescentoj = 100 = 1000 Spesdekoj Spesoj

Value

Had 1 Spesmilo the equivalent of 0,733 grams of gold, 1/2 dollars, or 2.50 francs a ruble.

Spesmilo characters

The Spesmilo character, a monogram of a large S and small M, was mainly used as a logo. In running text of Spesmilo is shortened to just "Sm ". It is included in the Unicode standard as a currency sign.

Ĉekbanko Esperantista

Hoveler Herbert (1859-1918), a German banker and esperantist, who had emigrated to London, was the most important promoter of the idea of ​​Speso. In order to enforce the currency he founded in 1907 Ĉekbanko Esperantista. The bank issued checks on Speso out the " unu lingvo Unu Mondo, unu mono" with the motto ( one world, one language, one currency " ) were printed. Altogether 730 bank customers were counted in 43 countries. With the death Hovelers 1918 also ended the currency.