# What currency might replace the US dollar as the world's reserve currency? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 22, 2007, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-currency-might-replace-the-us-dollar-as-the-worlds-reserve-currency/420056 "2007-09-22T00:17:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-currency-might-replace-the-us-dollar-as-the-worlds-reserve-currency/420056/1 "2007-09-22T00:17:31Z")
I didn’t want to hijack [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=437275) , so I decided to start another. What currency might eventually replace the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency? I’m guessing that political stability is a huge part of a currency’s attraction as a reserve currency, so maybe the euro might eventually replace the dollar. But if not the euro, what? The Chinese yuan? But they have some serious stability problems themselves. The Japanese yen? The Indian rupee? The Russian ruble? What about the Swiss mark? Of course, a single currency might not replace the Almighty Dollar. Perhaps a basket of currencies might replace it. If so, what currencies would you expect to find in that basket? ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-currency-might-replace-the-us-dollar-as-the-worlds-reserve-currency/420056/2 "2007-09-22T00:47:40Z")
[QUOTE=LonesomePolecat] What about the Swiss mark? [/QUOTE] There might be a drawback to that idea, seeing as how there is _no such thing_ as a Swiss mark. It’s the Franc! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-currency-might-replace-the-us-dollar-as-the-worlds-reserve-currency/420056/3 "2007-09-22T01:16:43Z")
The Euro’s looking pretty strong these days, up to about $1.40 now. It was trading at par with the dollar just five years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-currency-might-replace-the-us-dollar-as-the-worlds-reserve-currency/420056/4 "2007-09-22T01:19:32Z")
How about the Australian dollar? It already seems to be preferred over US dollars among money-changers in Indonesia. ---
**Author:** ![Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Throatwarbler_Mangrove)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-currency-might-replace-the-us-dollar-as-the-worlds-reserve-currency/420056/5 "2007-09-22T01:23:36Z")
The other thing, aside from political and economic stability, is the simple importance of the currency in the trade of a country. The US dominates the world economy, China, for example, trades a lot more with the US than Switzerland or Canada, so will hold a large percentage of their reserves in US Dollars instead of, say, Swiss Francs or Canadian Dollars. If you look at [Wiki’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_currency) list of world reserve currencies by weight, you can see the US has the largest percentage, at 60 odd %, followed by the Euro (which replaces the amounts previously occupied by the Deutch Mark and the Franc) at 25 odd %. This makes sense, since the US is the largest economic player in the world followed by the EU. I suppose, in the future, if the US slowly declines to a third rate power while the EU gains prominence, that might be reversed, but I don’t think the current housing bubble-pop is _that_ catastrophic. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-currency-might-replace-the-us-dollar-as-the-worlds-reserve-currency/420056/6 "2007-09-22T14:08:43Z")
[QUOTE=Arnold Winkelried] There might be a drawback to that idea, seeing as how there is _no such thing_ as a Swiss mark. It’s the Franc! :mad: [/QUOTE] :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-currency-might-replace-the-us-dollar-as-the-worlds-reserve-currency/420056/7 "2007-09-22T14:23:27Z")
Maybe they keep calling it a mark over in the German portion? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-currency-might-replace-the-us-dollar-as-the-worlds-reserve-currency/420056/8 "2007-09-22T14:46:32Z")
I’d say that the dominant international currency will be indicative of the country which is doing the most importing. At some point in time, that will be China, but when is a good question. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-currency-might-replace-the-us-dollar-as-the-worlds-reserve-currency/420056/9 "2007-09-22T15:26:25Z")
Sound as a £ ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-currency-might-replace-the-us-dollar-as-the-worlds-reserve-currency/420056/10 "2007-09-22T17:43:08Z")
Gold-pressed latinum, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-currency-might-replace-the-us-dollar-as-the-worlds-reserve-currency/420056/11 "2007-09-22T18:29:15Z")
Given the relative strength, lately, one is prompted to suggest the Canadian Dollar!!! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-currency-might-replace-the-us-dollar-as-the-worlds-reserve-currency/420056/12 "2007-09-22T18:33:40Z")
[QUOTE=RTFirefly] The Euro’s looking pretty strong these days, up to about $1.40 now. It was trading at par with the dollar just five years ago. [/QUOTE] The world-wide community of Esperanto-speakers seems to have settled on the euro as their currency; if I order a CD from Brazil, and I’m in Canada, the price is quoited in euros. Admittedly, this is probably because the historical homeland, and most of the speakers, of Esperanto are in Europe, rather than simply any virtue of the euro itself, but it gives a feel as to what a euro-denominated world might be like.