User:Baron of Bastanchury

Sandbox text for 20 ice mark note:

It was decided on August 8, 2018 by decree of His Royal Highness and following a discussion by members of the Royal Council to name the paper currency of Westarctica “ice marks”, and all subsequent issue of Westarctican paper currency shall be understood to be in denominations of ice marks regardless of whether or not said currency actually bears the English words “ice marks” or any variation of this term or any equivalent or similar term appearing in any language.

The ice mark is established as a whole-number decimal unit of currency. According to this system, there are no units of currency less than one ice mark as well as no fractional units of ice mark.

Bank note disclaimer

Relation to the Westarctican dollar

Westarctica’s paper currency is entirely separate and independent from and has no correspondence to Westarctica’s system and concept of cryptocurrency, WestarcticaCoin. The two forms of currency are not interchangeable or exchangeable, and other than being under the control of the government of Westarctica bear no relation to each other.

Backing

As of 2018 and unless or until indicated otherwise, Westarctican paper banknotes have no backing in specie and may not be redeemed within Westarctica or elsewhere for any form of bullion. Neither are these notes yet tied to any existing exchange rate with regard to other forms of currency, whether micronational or other, anywhere in the world. However, they are available as items of curiosity; other entities may offer exchange rates for these notes at whatever rate they deem appropriate, if any. With regard to the current (2018) issue of banknotes and until/ unless other subsequent notification is given, Westarctica takes no interest in such matters.

Also note that the bearer of any Westarctican banknote of the extant series of such banknotes may not demand redemption of these notes for any amount of currency issued by any micronational nor non-micronational government entity. Unless indicated otherwise, banknotes issued by the Bank of Westarctica do not have any exchange value with regard to any published exchange rate of any world currency, past, present, or future, and the holders of said banknotes shall not expect said currency to be recognized as holding intrinsic comparable value in the currency of any nation.

Terms

On its obverse side Westarctican paper currency bears a QR code. When scanned, this code reveals the note's serial number, no two of which are identical. The serial number of each note includes more than a unique number, it also contains information about the issue of the note. The terms and concepts include the following:

• “Denomination code” - this four-number code corresponds to the denomination of the banknote on which it appears. The code for a 20 ice mark note, for example, is 0020; a 100 ice mark note would be 0100; a 5,000 ice mark note would have the number 5000.

• “Serial year” - this indicates the overall visual appearance at the time of creation of a give banknote, regardless of year it was actually printed, and is coded by a sequential number beginning with 1, indicating the first year of printing: all notes whose designs are essentually the same as the original note, for example, will bear the number 1. The calendar year to which this code corresponds is established by the first year that a note of a given denomination and in a particular overall style was printed. For the 20 mark note, the first year of

• “Printing/ Issue year” - this number is equal to the serial year PLUS the number of years between that serial year and the actual year the note was printed/ manufactured/ distributed. Its value will be equal to the serial year if the note is printed in the same year as the serial year.

• “Serial number” - this six-digit number is unique to each banknote for a given serial year and printing/ issue year. Should all six digits be used up or otherwise become designated as unavailable, a suffix letter (A-Z) may be added to the serial number of a given banknote to indicate an additional banknote with that same six digit numerical code and to differentiate it from that note.

• “Series code/ letter” - this is an arbitrary alphabetic code to indicate a minor variation in note format within a given serial year and printing year. It is unaffected by the bill’s serial number, though some serial codes may only correspond historically to certain serial numbers. All banknotes will bear a series code, even if the serial year and printing year had no minor variations.

Security features of the 20 ice mark bill

The Central Bank of Wesarctica, embodied in His Royal Highness the Grand Duke, is the sole producer of legal tender Westarctica currency in banknote or specie. The 20 “ice mark” note (the currency symbol for which is the U+2745 tight trifoliate snowflake in the Dingbats Unicode block which somewhat resembles a 6-fold symmetrical snowflake) began printing in 2018. It is the first official bill printed by the monarchy since the nation’s inception. Like all banknotes, the Westarctican 20 ice mark banknote has an obverse and a reverse. This document describes the various decorative and security features of both sides of the 2018 printing.

Obverse

The obverse of the banknote features first and foremost an image of the portrait of the reigning Grand Duke, Grand Duke Travis. This image appears on the note’s left side and has been rendered in an engraved format.

To the portrait’s direct right are a series of orange EUR+ion constellations which are an anti-counterfeit measure that prevent the bill from being photocopied on a color printer.

Across the top appear the words “Twenty Westarctican Ice Marks”, the denomination of the note written in English.

To the left of this is a guilloche symbol situated behind the numbers "2" and "0" along with the unicode symbol for the ice mark (as outlined above). The guilloche medallion appears behind the Grand Duke's head, while the numbers "2" and "0" are placed before his head.

Along the left side of the note is a dark strip announcing that the note has been issued by the “Central Bank of Westarctica”.

In the bottom center of the note, below the written statement indicating the denomination of the note, appear the words, “This note is legal tender for all debts within Westarctica”.

In the bottom center of the bill appears a scanable QR code graphic. This QR code corresponds to the bills unique identifier, <-- which is composed of 3 elements which are separated by hyphens.--> If scanned, the code will allow the user to access the bill’s alphanumeric serial code along with any other relvant information about the bill. This code will appear in the following format: The first set of alphanumeric codes correspond to that bill’s unique serial number within its series year and issue year, and is separated from the next two elements by a hyphen (-). It always begins with eight digits, and may or may not be followed by a letter. If all series numbers within a given year are eventually used, then this set of numbers will be immediately followed by a letter indicating the note belongs to the next set of series numbers— that is, all bills numbered 00000001 through 99999999 belonging to the first series of bills printed will have no following letter; if the Bank of Westarctica eventually issues more than 99,999,999 20-ice mark bills within a given series year (see below) and series code (also see below), then the first bill issued after the 99,999,999th bill will begin with the code 00000001A, followed by a hyphen and then the remaining two blocks of codes.

Following the first block number is a digit corresponding to the serial year that the bill was issued— for example, a bill issued in 2018 (the first series year for the 20 ice mark bill) will have a number 1; if a new series is created in any subsequent year (which could be 2019, 2020, 2030, or any year number), that year will be coded with the next higher number in the sequence (i.e., “2"). There is no upper limit to this number. All bills within a serial year will have the same basic format as other bills of that serial year, regardless of when that note was actually printed. If there is a major revision of a bill at a later date, this will invoke a new serial year code. The serial year code will always be followed by a hyphen.

Following the serial year and the issue year is a final letter block indicating the note’s series code for that serial year and issue year. This letter (or, potentially, letters, typically A-Z) corresponds to a minor variation for that note within its serial and issue year, and may be arbitrarily and non-sequentially chosen within the 26-letter Roman alphabet. All notes that follow the format and appearance of the original issue year and printing year will have the same letter code(s) in this field; if the Bank of Westarctica decides to issue a different kind of note during that same series year and printing year, then that note will bear a different letter(s) here. Only if more than 26 such series letters become necessary for a given series year and issue year will the field contain two letters (e.g., “FR” or “AG” or any other two-letter code). There is no upper limit to the length of the series code which a note may bear, so long as each series note is identical in appearance (other than its QR code) to other notes in the same series and can be clearly differentiated from other notes in different series’. The series code does not indicate the note’s series year or printing year, though certain series years and printing years will only bear certain series codes (which means a series and printing year may sometimes be deduced backwards from an apparent series code). All bills must have a series code, even if the appearance of that note never varies (in which case, all such notes issued that year and based on the same original year of would have a series code of “A” or “J” or some other lettter).

Examples: A bill whose QR code reveals its serial number to be 34992322C-4-1-E indicates that this is note number 34992322, which, by virtue of the letter “C”, means the third time this particular number has been issued within... ...Some serial year, here indicated by the number 4— let us say that the Bank of Westarctica decided to issue newly designed 20-ice-mark notes in 2018, 2020, 2023, 2030. Then the 20-ice mark note which was largely redesigned in 2030 would be coded with the number 4, followed by... ...A year of actual printing— here, a numeral 1 means that this note was actually printed in the same year as its series year, 2030, followed by... ...Its series letter, in this case “E”, which only means that this note is somehow different from any other bill bearing the letter “A” or “H” or any other code in this field.

Another example: A note whose QR code reveals its serial number to be 12237770-1-3-AZ indicates that this note, number 12237770 (no other notes from this serial year or printing year bear this same serial number because there is no letter following the 0 at the end), matches the design of similar bills originally printed in that same series year (which, because it is a 1, must be 2018 but was actually printed in 2021 (the numeral 3 means that this bill was printed in 2018+3=2021, and that this note’s appearance is essentially the same as the 2018 note) and is the “AZ” series bill printed that year (meaning that there must have been at least 26 other series bills also printed that year for that series year, though this field does not tell the user additional information nor if more than 52 such series notes were eventually printed for that series year and print year).

Third example: A note with the QR code indicating 00030020A-2-4-WEX. This indicates that the note holds the serial number 00030030 and was the second note to bear that serial number for series year (because the first note with that number did not have the letter A at the end) and was printed in the style of the 2018 note plus... ...Two years, =2020, meaning this note was the for the issue year was 2020, and was... ...the 4th design for that bill that year of issue, and... ...belongs to the WEX series of bills issued that year and in the format of 2018 (?) Note (?)

Signature of the Grand Duke Each bill contains an officially recognized copy of the signature of the Grand Duke.

Lesser coat of arms The lesser coat of arms appears on each note, in an engraved format, behind all other features of the note.

Top guilloche line The top of the note features a repeated guilloche pattern of white curved lines\

Bottom guilloche line The bottom of the note features a similar set of lines

Lower right 20 The number “20" on the lower right of the bill has a background in guilloche patterns and stands out prominently on the bill, and is printed on top of the lesser coat of arms

Background stars The background of the obverse features a repeaing pattern of minute 5-point stars which becomes more prominent form lef tot right

Other guilloche patterns The note features additional subtle guilloche patterns in several colors across the face of the note, behind the portrait of the Grand Duke

Gradients with blending modes As a security feature, each note features two smooth gradients with blending modes across the face which make the note particularly difficult to successfully counterfeit.

The reverse of the bill

The reverse of the 20 ice mark note has the following features:

Southern constellations The back of each mark displays a swathe of constellations visible from the southern hemisphere, along with the path of stars which compose the souther branch of the Milky Way

The center shows an overall geographic map of the continent of Antarcrtica— Westarctica is highighted two series of spheres of increasing size arc from the the center towards the upper left of the note, giving the note a complex series of gradients (anti-counterfeiting measure) In the upper left appear the numbers “20" in front of a guilloche pattern but specifically behind the names and palcement of any constellantions in that region of the sky Across the botton left appear the owrds “Bank of Wesartcica” in hollow foint. Another set of 20 nmbers appear son the lower right also backed by a guilloche pattern A black strip appears across the bottom of the overall design but within the white border The words “Fortune favors the bold” appear in the bottom center of the reverse; the word “bold” is set in all-caps and is set off from the rest of the text A white guilloch battern nanalogous to the one on the fron to fhte note also appears acrosss the top of the reverse of the note. Two subtle interactive gradients stretch across the reverse in two of the four quadrants The reverse features a background pattern of snowflakes which repeat from left to right and top to bottom across the entire face of the note A single near-black high-contrast strip occurs vertically on the right side of the note; within this, the numbers of the note’s denomination, “20”, are repeated in yellow characters