Many currencies are named using the following pattern: {adjectival form of their country of issue} {base unit}
Examples:
- Portuguese escudo
- Turkish lira
Similarly, dollar is not a currency, but the Canadian dollar is. Likewise, rupee is not a currency, but the Indian rupee is.
Below is an unordered and incomplete list of such base units. Each of these is often derived from a historical unit of weight, something to do with government, or the word for something like "silver"; related forms share historical or linguistic heritage.
Is there a name for all these base units of currencies? Each is an instance of ___ ?
- dollar
- franc
- escudo
- pound, lira, livre
- krona, krone, koruna
- yen, yuan, won
- mark
- peso
- real, rial, riyal
- rupee, rupiah, rufiyaa
- dinar
- drachma, dirham
- ruble
- guilder, florin
Sample sentence:
Upon introduction, a government may choose to name its new currency using a well-known numisnym like "dollar" or "dinar".
...where I have coined and used "numisnym" in place of the word I seek.