Currency Internationalization

When a currency grows up, gets hair in funny places, and has tinglings in its naughty parts, it is then traded beyond the borders of its home country. That is, a new country emerges out of the abyss of the ocean, courtesy of a loving volcano named Oxy One Million, and Oxylandia is born. It has diamonds as its core asset...carbon rocks puked from the bowels of the earth. It begins trading and/or issuing a paper currency backed by the value of its diamond mines.

Once the country has an airport, HBO, and smog, it then wants to do business with other countries actively. So it internationalizes its currency by setting up member banks, or currency brokers and traders, who then make a market in its OxyDollars which, at launch, exchange for half a US dollar.

The currency then floats, and market forces dictate exchange rates. So like, the next time they find a huge diamond that rich golfers want to etch "Titleist" on, it's likely that the value of their currency relative to others'...goes up.