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What was the most Resilient National Currency of the Twentieth Century?

Which national currency retained the greatest percentage of its value from 1/1/1901 through 12/31/2000? Currencies like Germany and Hungary which were wiped out due to hyperinflation in the thirties are obviously out of contention. On the flipside, several didn't perform terribly poorly, like the Swiss Franc, U.S. and Canadian Dollars. Applying a meaningful benchmark against a currency at two such disparate points in time (1901 and 2000) is part of the problem.

Public Comments

1. That is an interesting question. Since nearly all currencies got clobbered during the two World Wars, there are only a few candidates: The US, Canada, UK, and Switzerland (In 1901, Australia and New Zealand were using the UK Pound, and most middle eastern countries were using either the Pound or the Ottoman Empire Livre.). I can't think of any other nation that did not have to remonetize at some point during the 1900s. Of those four, we will take the exchange rate vs. the US Dollar in 1901 vs. 2000. UK Pound in 1901 = US$4.80 / in 2000 = approximately $1.50 Canada Dollar in 1901 = US$1 / in 2000 = approximately US$0.90 Swiss Franc in 1901 = approximately US$0.20 / in 2000 = approximately US$0.80 If this is the case, the Swiss Franc would be the best performer, by a wide margin.