currency, foreign-exchangeBy “least circulated”, I mean used by the least number of people. Or, to put the question another way, what is the currency of the smallest country (by population) with an independently-valued currency – a currency not “pegged” to the U.S. Dollar or any other currency or commodity?
To be clear, this definition would exclude, for instance, the “Djiboutian Franc”, because (according to Wikipedia), it’s pegged to the Dollar, and thus is effectively an alias for the USD.
My curiosity is related to Bitcoin, and wondering what it would take for the BTC exchange rate(s) to become relatively stable… This won’t give us any absolutes, of course, but perhaps some insight.
In the Lompoc prison complex (total less than 4,000 prisoners), pouches of mackerel are an established currency. That makes it smaller than 5% of the size of the Seychelles Rupee. There will be other, smaller closed communities that also have their own established currency. Somewhere, there will be a community of less than 50 people with their own established currency.
Okay, I think I've found an answer... I just started at the bottom of Wikipedia's countries-by-population list and worked my way up.
The least populous country with an independent currency appears to be Seychelles, with its Seychellois Rupee. The country has a 2009 estimated population of 84,000. Not bad; a relatively small number of people. This currency might not be a stellar example of "stable"... but, still interesting to know.
Other low-user-base, independent currencies I found were...
And, perhaps also interesting, it looks like the New Zealand Dollar is the smallest currency (by user-base), that might be considered a major currency (apparently the tenth "most traded" currency by value).
(I'd have posted links for all the other currencies, but StackExchange still won't let me.)
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