Definition

• An Esperanto term for an international money unit proposed as a theoretical "money of exchange," by M. Rene de Saussure, a well-known Swiss scientist. As the name indicates, the Spesmilo (abbreviated Sm.) consists of one thousand Speso (1 Speso equals about $.0005). The Spesmilo is subdivided into the Spescento (100 Speso 1 ) and the Spesdeko (10 Speso). Although proposed merely as a fictitious money of exchange, coins of the value of one Spesmilo and two Spesmilo have been struck.

  Theoretically, the Spesmilo represents the value of eight grammes of gold eleven twelfths pure. For practical purposes it is considered, approximately, to be the value of fifty Cents (U.S.), two and one half Francs, two Shillings, two Marks, one double, one Mexican Peso, one Yen, one Sol, ten Piastres, etc.

  In L907, at its thirty-sixth session, the "Association Franchise pour l'Avancement des Sciences" adopted the Speso as the basis for an international "fictitious" money. About that time the "Schweizerische Bankverein" introduced experimentally international Spesmilo checks, the values being indicated exclusively in the Spesmilo system and the text being printed in the international language, Esperanto.

Quelle

• Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)

Beziehungen