The Federation credit was a monetary unit used by the United Federation of Planets.
Although it was stated on more than one occasion that the economy of the future was very different, and that money no longer existed on Earth from as early as the late 22nd century or in the Federation as late as the 24th century, this medium of exchange did still exist within that period. All known examples of credit use were via transactions outside or on the periphery of the Federation. (DS9: "In the Cards"; VOY: "Dark Frontier"; Star Trek: First Contact)
In 2267, Engineer DeSalle euphemistically wagered "credits to navy beans" that the USS Enterprise could penetrate a force field with its impulse drive. (TOS: "Catspaw")
Later that same year, Uhura was offered a tribble for ten credits by a bartender on Deep Space Station K-7, a border outpost on the edge of Federation space. She later received one gratis from fellow Federation citizen Cyrano Jones. (TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles")
In the 2250s, the Federation placed a bounty of 100,000 credits on Harry Mudd. (ST: "The Escape Artist")
In 2269, Harry Mudd was selling love potion crystals on Motherlode, a planet outside Federation jurisdiction, for three hundred credits apiece. (TAS: "Mudd's Passion")
In the previous instances, it was not specified that the credits in question were of Federation origin.
Almost a century later, the Federation would have paid the Barzanian Planetary Republic, a non-Federation government, 1.5 million Federation credits as a lump sum and then 100,000 credits every Barzanian year for the rights to the Barzan wormhole. The transaction never transpired, once the wormhole's instability became apparent. (TNG: "The Price", okudagram)
Ronald D. Moore commented: "By the time I joined TNG, Gene had decreed that money most emphatically did NOT exist in the Federation, nor did 'credits' and that was that. Personally, I've always felt this was a bunch of hooey, but it was one of the rules and that's that." (AOL chat, 1997)
A Constitution-class starship was stated to be worth several billion credits in the novel The Kobayashi Maru. In the DC Comics story "The Final Voyage", Spock's back pay was stated to be around 611,700 credits when the five-year mission ended.
See also[]
- Credit chip
- Terran Imperial credit, an equivalent monetary unit in the Mirror universe.
External link[]
- Credit at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works