Commonwealth Financial Services. This is a mega corporation that dabbles in banking (they don’t loan small amounts) and commodities trading. Their most notable asset is minting the most ubiquitous physical coinage in the Array, the CFS. One CFS is equivalent to 100 Cr. on Traveller price lists.
CFS is based on the world of Monteen, where the Monarch is signatory to the Compact, but it is widely known that mega-corporations, chief among them CFS, pull the Monarch’s strings. CFS has advanced computers, communication and sensors. They also operate one of the best merchant academies.
The scientists at CFS have discovered a method for harvesting material from a white dwarf, and this makes their currency unique. They encase tiny flecks of degenerate matter from a collapsed star in the center of all the coins, making them virtually impossible to counterfeit. Though some are marked after minting, it’s very difficult. Most of the coins are almost impossible to trace without a mark, having no serial numbers.
The CFS is not cheap to produce. One CFS silver is the same value as 100 Cr. Purchases of less than one CFS copper’s value are done in local currencies, or in credit from accounts or from cred chips.
A CFS copper is worth 1/10 of a CFS, and is about the same purchasing power that 10 Cr. The copper is 20 mm in diameter, and it weighs 4 grams.
The silver is one CFS, worth about 100 Cr. Diameter is 22 mm, weighs 5 grams.
The gold is ten CFS, worth about 1,000 Cr. Diameter 24 mm, weighs 6 grams.
The green ‘leaf’ is 100 CFS, worth about 10,000 Cr. Diameter is 26 mm, weighs 7 grams.
Purple ‘orchids’ are each 1000 CFS, worth about 100,000 Cr. Diameter 28 mm, weighs 8 grams.
CFS coins are very hard to deface, with a coating of a plasteel alloy that resists puncture, but it can be done. Marked coins can be exchanged by Travellers for new ones at CFS exchanges nearer to the core, by appointment. There is a niche market of buying up marked coinage in the periphery at a discount, then transporting it core-ward for a profit.
Though they have never been found to be in violation of the first Edict, suspicions were raised in a case over a hundred years ago, when a rogue robot developed sentience and self-preservation instinct, and took hostages on Monteen. The outcome was disastrous, and news of it spread throughout the Array.