Basic Trope: A foreign currency is next to worthless.
- Straight: 1 Troperian dollar (TRD) = 1,000,000 Ruritanian rumees (RRR)
- Exaggerated:
- 1 TRD = 1 googol RRR
- Attempting to use currency converter programs to convert between TRD and RRR results in overflow errors.
- Scientific notation has to be used.
- Downplayed:
- 1 TRD = 1000 RRR
- Ruritania's economy has been stable for decades and they just never bothered with the headache of revaluing the currency. All but the most clueless tourists just think of and treat the 10K RRR coins as Troperian pennies.
- Justified:
- There is or has been inflation in Ruritania.
- All the currencies were invented independently of each other. It's not too odd that there exists two currencies with a great difference in value.
- The nations' economies have only just started exchanging, it'll take some time for the figures to actually make sense.
- Inverted:
- 1,000,000 TRD = 1 RRR
- Rumee bills are worth so much that they're only used to buy houses, cars, or anything in that price range. Coins are used for everything else.
- Lampshadecoin is a cryptocurrency where one LSC is 20,000 TRD.
- Subverted:
- Rumees are the Ruritanian equivalent of cents, only that there are 100,000 rumees in a "rubee".
- It seems hyperinflated until one sees the sheer technology level disparity which requires the GDP of Ruritania for "cheap" items which are essentially miracles.
- Double Subverted: This turns out to be incorrect. There are 100 rumees in a rubee, not 100,000, and nobody uses rubees anyway.
- Parodied:
- 1 TRD = Eleventy Zillion RRR
- Attempting to convert causes the machine to explode.
- The Bank of Ruritania makes sure that the rumees are pretty much worthless "because everyone thinks 100 trillion rumee notes are cool".
- In Ruritania, all prices are written in scientific notation, even though it's far from necessary.
- Zig Zagged: The value of rumees jumps up and down like crazy.
- Averted:
- The exchange rate is reasonable, for instance 1 TRD = 5 RRR, or 1 TRD = 15 RRR
- All mentioned countries use the same currency.
- Enforced: "I think we're running out of jokes for this episode..." "Hey, let's make a joke of the worthlessness of Ruritanian currency! That never gets old!"
- Lampshaded: "2 million dollars for a chocolate bar? That's awfully expensive!" "No, it's 2 million rumees, or barely two dollars."
- Invoked: The central bank of Ruritania devalues the rumee so they can be more competitive with their exports.
- Exploited: Alice, a Ruritanian, finds out that Bob the Troperian doesn't know how little a rumee is worth, and tricks him into exchanging 10,000 dollars for 10,000 rumees.
- Defied:
- The Ruritanian government introduces a new currency, the "rudee". It is worth 1,000,000 times more than the old rumees.
- The Ruritanians switch to using Troperian dollars, or some fictional equivalent of euros.
- The Ruritanian rumee gets revalued.
- Discussed: "3 million rumees? Is that enough to buy a house or enough to buy a pack of gum?"
- Conversed: "Why is the Troperian dollar the only currency in this show that isn't completely worthless?"
- Implied:
- After his visit to Ruritania, Remy tells about how everything looks really expensive, but is actually a bargain.
- The only Ruritanian currency shown is a 50,000 rumee bill.
- Played For Laughs:
- Troperians and/or Ruritanians try to find alternative uses for Ruritanian notes (firewood, decorative paper, wallpaper...) because they're pretty much worthless anyway (never mind that destroying money can be punishable in Real Life).
- Samuel spends a lot of time trying to steal a trunk stuffed with rumees. When he finally succeeds, he finds out that he has stolen 50 million rubees... which is about 10 dollars.
- Lizzie wins 50 million in the lottery and is ecstatic... only to learn that it's 50 million rumees.
- Played For Drama: Ruritania and its people suffer because of hyperinflation.
Back to Ridiculous Exchange Rates, but don't forget to buy some rumees before going there. The current exchange rate is 1,562,541.
