Star Trek: 10 Crazy Facts About Ferengi

7. Gold-Pressed Latinum

Ferengi money
CBS

The focus of Star Trek has always been the Federation and Starfleet. Humanity had left a lot of things behind over the centuries, including the need for currency within its own society. This wasn't true for many other species and governments who still used a monetary system, frequently based on Latinum.

A rare liquid metal that had a silver-ish color, Latinum was incredibly valuable. Gold wasn't, so it was used to create a means of containing the Latinum for easy transactions. This is how, and why, Gold-Pressed Latinum was developed.

While it's used by a number of species as currency, it has an what's best described as a mythical status in Ferengi culture. Almost everything they do is based on Gold-Pressed Latinum, and accumulating it. Several of the Rules of Acquisition are either focused directly on Gold-Pressed Latinum or reference it in some fashion.

Even Nog, the first Ferengi to join Starfleet, still had an ingrained love for Gold-Pressed Latinum. It's hard-wired into Ferengi culture.

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Ian Goodwillie is a freelance writer based out of Saskatoon, SK, Canada. He has a BA in English Literature from the University of Saskatchewan and completed the Writing Program at Vancouver Film School. More importantly, Ian is also a wrestling fan, comic book reader, video game player and photographer. He loves to write and writes about what he loves. Ian's also an unrepentant, unapologetic Cougar Town fan, a show he will defend until the day he dies.