title: Marudhanayagam

text: Touted to be the most expensive film to be produced in India during that period, the film had a proposed budget of 80 crores. The film had originally pulled together several prominent names across Indian cinema as its principal cast and crew, including Vishnuvardhan, Amrish Puri and Naseeruddin Shah. The music for the film was composed by Ilaiyaraaja with cinematography handled by Ravi K. Chandran.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: Despite beginning its shoot in 1997, the film went through various production troubles and eventually an international company, that had been co-producing the film, backed out. After becoming delayed in 1999, the film has not continued production despite numerous attempts at reviving the project.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: Following the release of "Gunaa" (1991), Kamal Haasan had considered directing a historical film and contemplated doing a period musical on the lines of "Ambikapathy" (1937), with the idea of making a film which had only verses for dialogue. Writer Sujatha then suggested Haasan to look at "Khan Saibu Sandai" (The War of Khan Sahib), a folk ballad edited by Tamil scholar Vanamamalai, which introduced them to the historical figure of Muhammed Yusuf Khan, an 18th-century warrior. Haasan agreed to the prospect and felt that the story had the potential to make a good historical film, with the appeal of depicting the rise from the nadir to the top of Khan's life. Sujatha revealed that nearly 80% of the film would be adapted from Samuel Charles Hill's biography of Khan, also known as "Marudha Nayagam", and to only use imagination where no solid or substantial information was available, such as on matters concerning his conversion to Islam. The team continued their research and developed the script of the film for four years. For the first time in India, the team planned to use a computer for screenplay writing, using a particular software called the Movie Magic Screenwriter with Sujatha working as a screenplay doctor. French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière and Haasan's mentor Ananthu were also involved in readying the screenplay for the film, as were historian S. Muthiah and poets Puviarasu and Gnanakoothan.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: In April 1997, Kamal Haasan confirmed that he had begun finalising work on "Marudhanayagam", suggesting it would be the most expensive Indian film ever made. In order to widen the potential business of the film into the Hindi-speaking regions of India, Kamal Haasan chose to spend most of mid-1997 directing the Hindi film "Chachi 420" (1997), his first straight Hindi film in twelve years.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: Through discussion with the British Deputy High Commission in Chennai, the producers brought in Queen Elizabeth II to appear as the chief guest at the launch of the project, which took place in the MGR Film City on 16 October 1997. The Queen spent 20 minutes on the sets of the film, with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, politicians S. Jaipal Reddy and G. K. Moopanar, journalist and veteran actor Cho Ramaswamy and veteran actors Sivaji Ganesan and Amrish Puri also in attendance. A teaser was shown at the launch, with a pilot video consisting of a battle scene which would feature for a few minutes in the film, with the production of the particular scene costing Kamal Hassan 1.5 crores alone. In November 1997, it was reported that the film would cost almost 85 crores to make and would subsequently become the most expensive Indian film production till then. The music for the trailer of the film was composed by Karthik Raja in late 1997, when Kamal Haasan and he were working together in "Kaathala Kaathala".


title: Marudhanayagam

text: The original cast included veteran Kannada actor Vishnuvardhan playing the role of Wajid Khan, with supporting actors Nassar, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri and Amrish Puri also given pivotal roles. Om Puri pulled out of the film in mid-1998 due to prior commitments and Sathyaraj replaced him in the film. When the film was postponed, the team were still waiting to hear back from actors Amitabh Bachchan and Rajinikanth who were approached to play guest roles. The latter was approached to portray the Maratha ruler, Pratap Singh of Thanjavur. The team approached Napoleon to play a role in the film, but his unavailability led to actor Pasupathy being cast in his first film role. The actor, who has since gone on to appear in successful films, was set to feature in the role of an antagonist and had shot for five days. Furthermore, actor Pasupathy Raj and actor-director R. C. Sakthi were signed on to essay other supporting roles.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: Kate Winslet was offered the lead female role of Marsha, but her rejection led to the makers considering other options. British casting director Priscilla John joined the team to assist with European casting. Haasan and his brother Chandrahasan visited France to audition European actors and were able to shortlist individuals to portray the lead actress and the main antagonist. Screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière accompanied Haasan to further auditions in London, where actors were selected to play characters including that of Stringer Lawrence. In order to physically prepare for his own role, Haasan went on a diet by eating only eggs, fruits and vegetables.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: The technical team included costume designer Sarika, Kamal Haasan's wife at the time of production. The make-up duties for the film were shared between Michael Westmore and his apprentice Barry Cooper, with the pair training several Indian make-up artistes during the film's pre-production stages. The graphics of the film were produced by Pentafour Software, whose work had been critically acclaimed in Shankar's "Jeans" (1998). Sabu Cyril was appointed head of art direction, with Prabhaharan and GK being two of his assistants, while director Sundar K. Vijayan, R. S. Shivaji, and G. N. R. Kumaravelan were signed on as second unit directors. Actor Daniel Balaji briefly also worked on the sets as a unit production manager, having initially set out to work as a second unit director. Vikram Dharma worked on the stunt choreography for the film, alongside an English stunt technician Jerry Crompton.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: Ravi K. Chandran was signed on ahead of P. C. Sriram and Santosh Sivan as cinematographer for the film, heading a team including apprentices Ravi Varman and Keshav Prakash, while dancer Birju Maharaj was announced as the choreographer. Photographer Sruthi Ramakrishnan partook in the film's early promotional shoots, and was brought to Chennai from Bangalore, while S. Muthukumar served as the film's still photographer during the filming process. Karate expert Shihan Hussaini helped provide security for Kamal Haasan during the making of the project. It was announced that music composing would be a collaborative effort between Ilaiyaraaja and Andrew Lloyd Webber with prominent Carnatic singer, M. S. Subbalakshmi also singing for the film. Classical violinist L. Subramaniam had turned down the opportunity to compose the background score for the film, with Ilaiyaraaja subsequently replacing him. Prominent percussionist Zakir Hussain had also discussed working on the film with Kamal Haasan, but eventually did not sign the project.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: Costume designer Sarika had begun researching accessories for the film from the early 1990s, soon after the project's inception. With the assistance of V. S. Chandralekha, the Commissioner of Tamil Nadu Archives and Historical Research, she began to put together outfits, uniforms, shoes and headgear of soldiers of the 1700s. Sarika and art director Sabu Cyril travelled to London and Paris to learn about English and French outfits from the period, and collaborate with French historians on the project. The pair visited war museums in London, photocopied books and collected archived material written by historical figures such as Warren Hastings, one of the founders of the British Empire. For the preparation of jewellery props, Sarika used metal dyes on silver, copying 18th century designs and original photographs of South Indian Nawabs.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: For a test shoot in Jaipur, Rajasthan during mid-1997, Sarika arranged up to 7,400 costumes and accessories to be ready, and the filming took place at the cost of 1 crore. Sarika arranged costumes to reflect British and French army officials, as well as Hindu and Muslim fighters. For the artwork in the film, Sabu Cyril attempted to gather as many cannons, guns and shields available from the period as possible. Chandran later noted that, in the absence of easy access to computer-generated imagery in the late 1990s, the sheer number of extras cast during the test shoot created logistical difficulties for maintaining crowd control and getting individuals ready for shoot.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: During the test shoot, palmyra trees and other vegetation were used to recreate the fauna of the Ramanathapuram district. The team also booked out over 200 acres of land near Irungattukottai and Sriperumbudur to potentially use for battle scenes. To train the cinematography team, Chandran recruited staff members who had worked on international films such as "Gandhi" (1981) and "A Passage to India" (1984). Remote-control cameras were also used, with the technology available being the most prolific in Indian films to date.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: At the launch ceremony, the inaugural shot was filmed with Kamal Haasan, in the persona of Marudhanayagam, hearing and reacting to an imperial announcement read out by the character played by Nassar, with Om Puri's character looking on. Official filming began several months later in Velangudi on 10 August 1998 with a scene of where a companion of the lead character, played by Kamal Haasan, is hanged prompting a brief altercation. The first schedule lasted until October 1998 and involved over a thousand extras, while actors such as Pasupathy also partook in the shoot.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: The film ran into production trouble in November 1998, when a sector of the Tamil community alleged that the film would contain historical misinterpretations of one of the community's historical icons. Furthermore, another section argued that the film is a distortion of history and that the central character would be portrayed as a hero of the struggle against the British instead of the traitor they felt he was. The allegations prompted Kamal Haasan to abandon extensive sets erected in Karaikudi, in interior Tamil Nadu, and shift to Chalakudy, in Kerala, to continue work on the project. Action sequences showing Kamal Haasan moving a large rock and battling rivals, were shot in and around Athirappilly Falls. Further scenes featuring Indian classical musicians and dancers were shot in Chromepet in Chennai. By the end of the initial shoot phase, 23 days of shoot had been finished, with 30 minutes of running time completed.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: Works on "Marudhanayagam" suddenly ceased in late 1998, after a British company that had planned to co-produce the film, backed out on account of India's Pokhran-II nuclear bomb test explosions. The film has been indefinitely postponed since. Haasan had invested 8 crores of his own wealth into the project through and has since revealed that the film would be revived at a future date. In a turn of events, Haasan announced in November 1999 that shooting will resume in six months after contracts of the technicians and actors were sorted, adding that a French version of the film will also be released, though work eventually did not restart.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: Haasan met American producers during his visit to Los Angeles in June 2006 to try to find a financier for the film, but talks were unfruitful. In June 2008, Haasan suggested that the film would be revived after the completion of his directorial venture, "Marmayogi", but within months, "Marmayogi" was shelved after pre-production. A two-minute soundless trailer of the film surfaced on the internet in January 2008, with critics claiming that there are "scenes which have the grandeur that stuns you instantly" and that "the visuals are astonishing."


title: Marudhanayagam

text: Haasan announced that he intended on restarting work on the film in 2012, mentioning that the film could be made within a budget of 150 crores, and may feature contemporary leading actor Rajinikanth in another role. Reports again suggested in 2013 that Haasan would resume the film in 2014 following the completion of his directorial venture, but reports were once again baseless. In 2014, filmmaker Keyaar made a public call to Fox Star Studios and other large production companies to consider reviving the project. Kamal Haasan revealed that Allirajah Subaskaran of Lyca Productions had expressed interest in financing the project during late 2015, but restarting the venture would involve extensive pre-production works and he would collaborate with Lyca Productions on a different venture first.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: The posters of the film were displayed at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, signalling the film's possible revival. However, in February 2018, Haasan revealed that he would only work on two more films before his proposed retirement from acting, "Vishwaroopam II" and "Indian 2". In 2020, Haasan stated:


title: Marudhanayagam

text: Ilaiyaraaja was signed on to score music for the film's soundtrack, while his son Karthik Raja composed the background music for the film's promotional trailer in late 1997. Initially Kamal Haasan planned to bring in prominent British film composer Andrew Lloyd Webber to compose the background music, while Ilaiyaraaja took in charge of composing the songs, suggesting that it will be a collaborative effort between the two composers. Later classical violinist L. Subramaniam was also brought to compose the film score, but he turned down the opportunity which made Ilaiyaraaja to take charge of composing the background score and the soundtrack.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: Despite the project being shelved, Ilaiyaraaja finished composing two songs for the film in late 1998. One of the songs were sung by prominent Carnatic singer, M. S. Subbalakshmi, and another song was titled "Poranthathu Panaiyur Mannu" which was composed and sung by Ilaiyaraaja. At an award ceremony held in Chennai, both Kamal Haasan and Ilayaraaja sang few lines from this song, which prompted the fans requesting to release the full song online. The song was released directly in YouTube (as both audio and video formats). The video song featured some footages of the sequences which were filmed during the initial phase of the production and few scenes from the film's trailer as well.


title: Marudhanayagam

text: The delay of the film has been subject to references in media and film. In Venkat Prabhu's "Saroja", the character played by Premji Amaren supposedly stumbles upon a DVD of "Marudhanayagam", while in Rajesh's "Siva Manasula Sakthi", Santhanam's character mockingly asks for a song from the shelved film to be played on the radio. In Adhik Ravichandran's "Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangadhavan" (2017), a poster of the film appears in the background of a scene, alongside other prominent shelved Tamil films such as Silambarasan's "Manmadhan 2" and the Vikram–starrer "Karikalan". Director A. L. Vijay revealed that "Marudhanayagam" was the inspiration behind his successful 2009 film, "Madrasapattinam", which was based on India's independence movement in 1947.


title: African Nations Championship

text: The African Nations Championship (; abbreviated as CHAN), known as the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship for sponsorship purposes, is a biennial African national association football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and first announced on 11 September 2007. The participating nations must consist of players playing in their national league competitions.


title: African Nations Championship

text: The first tournament held in Ivory Coast in 2009 was won by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who, along with Morocco, are the only countries to have won the tournament twice, with Tunisia and Libya scooping one title each. At first, the tournament was played with eight teams, but quickly expanded to sixteen from the second edition onward.


title: African Nations Championship

text: As of the 2014 edition, all tournament matches from qualification to the final, will be computed to calculate the FIFA World Rankings, making its development a necessity. The whole tournament is considered friendly by FIFA since the restriction only allows players from local leagues to participate. The tournament is held biennially, alternating with the Africa Cup of Nations.


title: African Nations Championship

text: The conception of this tournament came on 11 September 2007 during a CAF Executive Committee in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the aim unveiled as giving homegrown players opportunities to represent their nations and promote their home leagues globally. The tournament was approved and confirmed the following January before the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana. After the tournament event in February, Ivory Coast succeeded in hosting the first edition unanimously by the Executive Committee led by then-CAF President, Issa Hayatou, beating firm-favorite countries like Sudan and Egypt. After this decision, the tournament dates were confirmed.


title: African Nations Championship

text: The qualifiers began on 29 March and concluded on 14 December 2008. During that period, seven teams joined Ivory Coast to play the tournament. On 22 February 2009, at the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan, the tournament kicked off. The first goal was scored by Zambian Given Singuluma against Ivory Coast. In Group A, Zambia and Senegal qualified at the expense of Tanzania and Ivory Coast. In Group B, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo were able to qualify, while Zimbabwe and Libya were unable to advance to the next round.


title: African Nations Championship

text: In the semi-finals, Senegal and Ghana faced each other, which was decided by a penalty shoot-out, the qualifier for the first final. On the other hand, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo or the DRC) beat Zambia and got the second ticket in the final match. In the match for third place, Zambia won the bronze medal over Senegal. The Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny witnessed the first final in the tournament's history as the Democratic Republic of the Congo became the inaugural tournament champion after defeating Ghana 2–0. In this way, the central African country achieved its first continental title after a 35-year drought.


title: African Nations Championship

text: The rapid interest of countries for the tournament led to the increase in the participants from 8 to 16, in its second edition hosted by Sudan in the midst of the struggle for the independence referendum for South Sudan in 2011. The four host cities were Omdurman, Khartoum, Wad Madani and Port Sudan. The qualifiers began on 11 January 2010 and ended on June 6 of the same year. A total of 11 teams qualified for the first time, while 5 teams qualified for the second time.


title: African Nations Championship

text: The tournament was very irregular, in each group there was a dominant team but all the second teams were decided in the last round. Cameroon and South Africa were the only two teams to score the full mark, but they lost in the quarter-finals to Angola and Algeria, respectively. Meanwhile, Sudan beat Niger on penalties and Tunisia beat defending champions Democratic Republic of the Congo.


title: African Nations Championship

text: On 22 February 2011, the semi-finals were played and both ended on penalties. In the first match, Tunisia continued its winning streak, and after a 1–1 draw, it defeated Algeria 3–5 on penalties. A little later, Sudan and Angola tied with the same score, but it was Angola that managed to win on penalties 2–4. In the match for third place, Sudan finished third after beating Algeria by 1–0. Tunisia and Angola, who had tied 1–1 in the first round 15 days ago, played in the final. Tunisia won the tournament in its first participation after beating Angola 3–0 in the final.


title: African Nations Championship

text: The tournament changed to instead be held biennially in even-numbered years. This came after the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations and the request of some European clubs to change this tournament to another year so that it does not coincide with the calendar with the FIFA World Cup, a request that was finally accepted by CAF. Prior to that, CAF named Libya as the hosts of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2014 African Nations Championship, but had both hosting rights stripped at the onset of the First Libyan Civil War. Several countries offered to host both tournaments, including Egypt and South Africa; the latter chosen as the hosts, citing the credential of its impressive infrastructural hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In the qualifiers, there were some big surprises, as the 2010 and 2014 World Cup players were excluded, namely Algeria, Cameroon and Ivory Coast, as well as Tunisia, the previous title holder.


title: African Nations Championship

text: The third edition was fantastic by all accounts, the World Cup stadiums gave a different touch to the tournament that started on 11 January 2014. The first round was very even, the quarter-finalists were decided in the last round, with decisive goals in stoppage time in each group. But since then, things have not changed in the knockout stage, as all the quarter-final and semi-final matches were decided by either a single goal difference or a penalty shootout. In the match for third place, Nigeria, who had several players on their team who won the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations and were preparing for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, won the bronze medal, after beating Zimbabwe 1–0.


title: African Nations Championship

text: The final was held in Cape Town between Ghana and surprise package Libya. The match, like the entire tournament, was very tight and ended 0–0 and the champions were determined by penalties. After 6 penalties per side, it was not only Libya that won the tournament for the first time, but also the first continental title in its history. Although undefeated, the Arab team achieved one win in the tournament in their first match in the group stage against Ethiopia.


title: African Nations Championship

text: The 4th edition of the tournament was held from 16 January to 7 February 2016 in Rwanda and DR Congo claimed their 2nd title defeating Mali, in the final for the first time and thus representing their best performance in the tournament, in the final by 3–0.


title: African Nations Championship

text: The 5th edition in 2018 was originally scheduled to be hosted in Kenya, but due to several delays in preparation and organization, CAF stripped the country of the hosting rights and opened a new election process. On 14 October 2017, CAF announced Morocco as the new host of the 2018 edition, which was played between 13 January to 4 February. One of the main reasons why Morocco applied to be an organizer is because it was looking to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, so the tournament represented one of the country's last chances to show itself as a strong candidate. The final pitted hosts Morocco and Nigeria; both teams undefeated throughout that edition of the tournament and only had a draw to their credit in their respective group stages. Morocco won the match 4–0, winning the title for the first time and becoming the first host nation to win the tournament.


title: African Nations Championship

text: On 7 February 2021, Morocco defeated Mali 2–0 in the 2020 final, becoming the first nation to win back-to-back titles.


title: African Nations Championship

text: On 21 July 2016, French energy and petroleum giant, Total S.A. (renamed "TotalEnergies" in 2021), secured an 8-year sponsorship package from CAF to sponsor its competitions, beginning the following year.


title: African Nations Championship

text: Since the second edition, in 2011, 16 teams have qualified for the tournament, allocated in this way (including the host country):


title: African Nations Championship

text: The 16 teams participating in the final phase are divided into four groups of four teams each. Within each group they face each other once, through the system of all against all. Depending on the result of each match, three points are awarded to the winner, one point to each team in case of a tie, and none to the loser.


title: African Nations Championship

text: The two best-ranked teams from each group advance to the next round. If at the conclusion of the group matches, two teams finish level on points, the following tie-breaking criteria apply:


title: African Nations Championship

text: If two or more teams are tied based on the above guidelines, their positions will be determined by the following criteria, in order of preference:


title: African Nations Championship

text: If after applying the above criteria two teams are still tied, the above three criteria are reapplied to the match played between the two teams in question to determine their final standings. If this procedure does not lead to a tiebreaker, the following tiebreaker criteria apply:


title: African Nations Championship

text: The second round includes all phases from the round of 16 to the final. The two semi-finalists qualify through the direct elimination system. The losing teams of the semifinals play a match for third and fourth place, while the winners play the final match, where the winner gets the title.


title: African Nations Championship

text: If after 90 minutes of play the game is tied, extra time is played in two stages of 15 minutes each. If the result is still tied after this extra time, the match is defined by the procedure of kicks from the penalty mark.


title: African Nations Championship

text: A hat-trick is achieved when the same player scores three or more goals in one match. Listed in chronological order.


title: African Nations Championship

text: Teams that have won the African Nations Championship consecutively and have become two-time champions (two consecutive titles) or three-time champions (three consecutive titles).


title: Suzuki GSX-R600

text: The Suzuki GSX-R600 is a "600 cc" class, or supersport, sport bike in Suzuki's GSX-R series of motorcycles.


title: Suzuki GSX-R600

text: Launched with a water-cooled inline-4 engine. The first model had the same body specifications as the 1992 GSX-R750, with the smaller engine and carried over through to the 1993 model year with no changes. It was not imported to UK.


title: Suzuki GSX-R600

text: Redesigned with the introduction of Suzuki Ram Air Direct (SRAD) and carried over through to the 2000 model year.


title: Suzuki GSX-R600

text: Redesigned with the introduction of fuel injection and carried over through to the 2003 model year with very few changes.


title: Suzuki GSX-R600

text: 9 kg Lighter overall, Showa Big Piston Forks (BPF), Brembo monobloc radial front brake calipers, re-designed lighter frame and swingarm, 15 mm shorter wheelbase. New gauge cluster similar to that used on the GSX-R1000. New cams, lighter pistons, higher compression and pentagonal ventilation holes on the block increases mid-range torque.


title: Colorado College

text: Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory. The college enrolls approximately 2,000 undergraduates at its campus. The college offers 42 majors and 33 minors. Notable alumni include Liz Cheney, Dutch Clark, Thomas Hornsby Ferril, James Heckman, Steve Sabol, Ken Salazar, and Marc Webb.


title: Colorado College

text: Colorado College is affiliated with the Associated Colleges of the Midwest. Most sports teams are in the NCAA Division III, with the exception of Division I teams in men's hockey and women's soccer.


title: Colorado College

text: Colorado College was founded in 1874 on land designated by U.S. Civil War veteran General William Jackson Palmer, the founder of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and of Colorado Springs. Founder Reverend Thomas Nelson Haskell of the Presbyterian Church described it as a coeducational liberal arts college in the tradition of Oberlin College. Like many U.S. colleges and universities that have endured from the 19th century, it now is secular in outlook, and it retains its liberal arts focus.


title: Colorado College

text: Cutler Hall, the college's first building, was completed in 1880 and the first degrees were conferred in 1882.


title: Colorado College

text: William F. Slocum, president from 1888 to 1917, oversaw the initial building of the campus, expanded the library and recruited top scholars in a number of fields. In 1930, Shove Chapel was erected by Mr. John Gray, to meet the religious needs of the students (though Colorado College is not religiously affiliated).


title: Colorado College

text: Katharine Lee Bates wrote "America the Beautiful" during her summer teaching position at Colorado College in 1893.


title: Colorado College

text: The college offers more than 80 majors, minors, and specialized programs including: Southwest studies, feminist and gender studies, Asian studies, biochemistry, environmental science, neuroscience, Latin American studies, Russian and Eurasian studies, and American cultural studies, as well as an across-the-curriculum writing program. In addition to its undergraduate programs, the college offers a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree. Tutt Library has approximately half a million bound volumes. In 2012, Colorado College yielded a student-to-faculty ratio of 10:1.


title: Colorado College

text: Colorado College follows a schedule known as the "block plan" in which students study one subject intensively for three-and-a-half-week "blocks", followed by a 4.5-day break. The intensity stems from the time commitment (classes meet for a minimum of three hours Monday through Friday) as well as the demand for engaging rapidly with complex content. Advocates say this allows for more lab time, field research, and an intensive hands-on learning experience with fewer distractions.


title: Colorado College

text: Students get a 4.5-day break between blocks. Most students head off campus, often to participate in some type of outdoor exploration.


title: Colorado College

text: Every student begins the Colorado College journey with a "First Year Experience" course, or FYE. This is a back-to-back block spanning 8 weeks and functions as a freshman seminar course.


title: Colorado College

text: Students can also take blocks during winter and summer breaks. In January, the college offers "half blocks," an intensive 10-day course fulfilling a half credit. Meanwhile, summer blocks are three weeks long, and there are also graduate blocks of differing lengths. In parallel with the students, professors teach only one block at a time. Classes are generally capped at 25 students to encourage a more personalized academic experience.


title: Colorado College

text: Colorado College is considered a "most selective school" by "U.S. News & World Report". For the Class of 2026, which enrolled in Fall 2022, Colorado College received a record 11,026 applications with an admission rate of just over 11 percent. Applicants from the Class of 2026 come from 47 states and 15 countries with twenty-five percent self-identifying as students of color. The class is also geographically diverse with 24 percent each from the Northeast and West; 17 percent from Colorado; 16 percent from the Midwest; and 15 percent from the South.


title: Colorado College

text: In its 2021 edition, "U.S. News & World Report" ranks Colorado College as tied for 25th best liberal arts college in the nation and No. 3 among the most innovative national liberal arts colleges. The most innovative schools are those "making the most innovative improvements in terms of curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology or facilities."


title: Colorado College

text: "Kiplinger's Personal Finance" places Colorado College 16th in its 2017 ranking of best value liberal arts colleges in the United States.


title: Colorado College

text: In 2019, "Forbes" rated it 92nd overall in "America's Top Colleges," which ranked 650 national universities, liberal arts colleges and service academies.


title: Colorado College

text: Students must satisfactorily complete 32 credits to graduate in addition to specifying a major of study and fulfilling those requirements. The college offers a unique alternative for students who wish to design their own major. However, standardized cross-cutting requirements still apply, though these criteria are fairly broad compared to those at comparable colleges.


title: Colorado College

text: The median family income of Colorado College students is $277,500, the highest of any college or university in the United States, with 54% of students coming from the top 5% highest-earning families and 10.5% from the bottom 60%.


title: Colorado College

text: The small campus of 2,000 students boasts more than one hundred clubs and student groups, ranging from professional groups, interests clubs, and social groups. Among them are intramural sports groups, which have a strong presence on campus. There are intramural teams, ranging from broomball to ultimate frisbee.


title: Colorado College

text: Most students live on or directly adjacent to the college campus. During the first two years of study, students are required to live on campus in one of the student dorms, while apartments and student-owned housing become available as upperclassmen.


title: Colorado College

text: Many of the earliest campus buildings, including Bemis, Cossitt, Cutler, McGregor, Montgomery, Palmer, and Ticknor Halls, are on the National Register of Historic Places, along with Shove Memorial Chapel and the William I. Spencer Center. Arthur House or Edgeplain, once home to the son of President Chester A. Arthur, is also on the National Register.


title: Colorado College

text: Since the mid-1950s, newer facilities include three large residence halls, Worner Campus Center, Olin Hall of Science and the Barnes Science Center, Honnen Ice Rink, Boettcher Health Center, Schlessman Pool, Armstrong Hall of Humanities, and the El Pomar Sports Center. The face of campus changed again at the beginning of the 21st century with construction of the Western Ridge Housing Complex, which offers apartment-style living for upper-division students and completion of the Russell T. Tutt Science Center. The east campus has been expanded, and is now home to the Greek Quad and several small residence halls known as "theme houses."


title: Colorado College

text: Some of the more recent notable buildings include Tutt Library, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and later expanded and renovated by Pfeiffer Partners to be the largest carbon-neutral academic library in the United States, Packard Hall of Music and Art, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes, and the Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center, which was designed by Antoine Predock with input from faculty and students.


title: Colorado College

text: Colorado College's Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center, completed in 2008 and located at the intersection of a performing arts corridor in Colorado Springs, is home to the college's film, drama and dance departments and contains a large theater, several smaller performance spaces, a screening room, the I.D.E.A. Space gallery, and classrooms, among other rooms. The building is also LEED certified.


title: Colorado College

text: The Ed Robson Arena is a 3,400-seat ice hockey arena on the campus of Colorado College. The arena opened on September 18 2021. Plans for a school-run arena date as far back as 2008 in the Colorado College Long Range Development Plan. At the time of planning, the Robson arena would be the second smallest facility in the NCHC, ahead of just the Goggin Ice Center. Colorado College justified this decision due to both the small undergraduate size of the college (approximately 2,000) and the average actual attendance of Tiger games (about 2,800). In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, the arena was opened ahead of schedule in mid-September 2021. It succeeded the Broadmoor World Arena as the home for the Colorado College Tigers ice hockey team and became the first on-campus home for the program after 82 years of operation.


title: Colorado College

text: The school's sports teams are nicknamed the "Tigers." Colorado College competes at the NCAA Division III level in all sports except men's hockey, in which it participates in the NCAA Division I National Collegiate Hockey Conference, and women's soccer, where it competes as an NCAA Division I team in the Mountain West Conference. CC dropped its intercollegiate athletic programs in football, softball, and women's water polo following the 2008–09 academic year.


title: Colorado College

text: In 1994, a student referendum to change the athletic teams' nicknames to the Cutthroat Trout narrowly failed, by a margin of 468–423.


title: Colorado College

text: The Tigers hockey team won the NCAA Division I championship twice (1950, 1957), were runners up three times (1952, 1955, 1996) and have made the NCAA Tournament eighteen times, including eleven times since 1995. In 1996, 1997, and 2005, CC played in the Frozen Four, finishing second in 1996. Fifty-five CC Tigers have been named All-Americans. Hockey Hall of Fame coach Bob Johnson coached the Tigers from 1963 to 1966.


title: Colorado College

text: The current hockey coach is Kris Mayotte, who had been an assistant coach at Providence College and the University of Michigan.


title: Colorado College

text: Colorado College operates National Public Radio Member Station KRCC-FM. In 1944, KRCC began as a two-room public address system in the basement of Bemis Hall. Professor Woodson "Chief" Tyree, Director of Radio and Drama Department at Colorado College was the founder and inspirational force in the program that one day became KRCC-FM. In 1946, KRCC moved to South Hall (where Packard Hall now stands) on campus where two students, Charles "Bud" Edmonds '51, and Margaret Merle-Smith '51, were instrumental in securing a war surplus FM transmitter. KRCC began over the air broadcasting in April 1951 as the first non-commercial educational FM radio station in the state of Colorado.


title: Colorado College

text: KRCC broadcasts through a series of eleven transmitters and translators throughout southern Colorado and a portion of northern New Mexico. KRCC's main transmitter, atop Cheyenne Mountain, broadcasts three separate HD multi-cast channels, including a channel run completely by Colorado College students called the SOCC (Sounds of Colorado College).


title: Colorado College

text: Colorado College has graduated a Nobel Prize winner, a Pulitzer Prize winner, 2 MacArthur Fellows,14 Rhodes Scholars, 31 Fulbright Scholars, 68 Watson Fellows, and winners of Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, and Grammy Awards. Alumni include Liz Cheney, Peggy Fleming, William A. Welch, and Abdul Aziz Abdul Ghani. Board members include Robert J. Ross, France Winddance Twine, and alumni Frieda Ekotto and Joe Ellis. Life Trustees include David M. Lampton and alumni Neal A. Baer. Honorary Trustees include alumni Lynne Cheney, Diana DeGette, and Ken Salazar. CC has also graduated 18 Olympians and 170 professional hockey players, including over 30 current and former NHL players. Notable faculty and staff include Dick Celeste and Jill Tiefenthaler.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The history of the United States dollar began with moves by the Founding Fathers of the United States of America to establish a national currency based on the Spanish silver dollar, which had been in use in the North American colonies of the United Kingdom for over 100 years prior to the United States Declaration of Independence. The new Congress's Coinage Act of 1792 established the United States dollar as the country's standard unit of money, creating the United States Mint tasked with producing and circulating coinage. Initially defined under a bimetallic standard in terms of a fixed quantity of silver or gold, it formally adopted the gold standard in 1900, and finally eliminated all links to gold in 1971.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: Since the founding of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 as the central bank of the United States, the dollar has been primarily issued in the form of Federal Reserve Notes. The United States dollar is now the world's primary reserve currency held by governments worldwide for use in international trade.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The United States Mint commenced production of the United States dollar in 1792 as a local version of the popular Spanish dollar or "piece of eight" produced in Spanish America and widely circulated throughout the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Made with similar silver content to its counterparts minted in Mexico and Peru, the Spanish, U.S. and Mexican silver dollars all circulated side by side in the United States, and the Spanish dollar and Mexican peso remained legal tender until the Coinage Act of 1857.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: After the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, the Continental Congress began issuing paper money known as Continental currency, or Continentals. Continental currency was denominated in dollars from $ to , including many odd denominations in between. During the Revolution, Congress issued in Continental currency. By the end of 1778, this Continental currency retained only between to of its original face value. By 1780, Continental bills – or Continentals – were worth just of their face value. Congress tried to reform the currency by removing the old bills from circulation and issuing new ones, but this met with little-to-no success. By May 1781, Continentals had become so worthless they ceased to circulate as money. Benjamin Franklin noted that the depreciation of the currency had, in effect, acted as a tax to pay for the war. In the 1790s, after the ratification of the United States Constitution, Continentals could be exchanged for treasury bonds at 1% of face value.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: Congress appointed Robert Morris to be Superintendent of Finance of the United States following the collapse of the Continental currency. In 1782, Morris advocated the creation of the first financial institution chartered by the United States. The Bank of North America was funded in part by bullion coin, loaned to the United States by France. Morris helped finance the final stages of the war by issuing promissory notes in his name, backed by his own money. The Bank of North America also issued notes convertible into gold or silver.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: Runaway inflation and the collapse of the Continental currency prompted delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 to include the gold and silver clause in the United States Constitution, preventing individual States from issuing their own bills of credit. Article One states they were prohibited to "make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts." Some people use this clause to argue that federal paper money is unconstitutional, though very few constitutional scholars hold that position.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: On July 6, 1785, the Continental Congress of the United States authorized the issuance of a new currency, the US dollar. The word "dollar" is derived from Low Saxon cognate of the High German "Thaler"; the term had already been in common usage since the colonial period when it referred to eight-real coin (Spanish dollar) or the "Spanish milled dollar" issued by the Spanish from New Spain and used throughout the rest of the Americas. The Spanish dollar was the most commonly circulated and readily available currency used by common Americans and was valued for its high silver content.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: Subsequently, the American administration of President George Washington turned its attention to monetary issues again in the early 1790s, under the leadership of Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury at the time. Congress acted on Hamilton's recommendations, with the Coinage Act of 1792 that established the dollar as the basic unit of account for the United States.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The United States Mint was created by Congress following the passing of the Coinage Act.. It was primarily tasked with producing and circulating coinage. The first Mint building was in Philadelphia, then the capital of the United States. The Mint was originally placed within the Department of State, until the Coinage Act of 1873 when it became part of the Department of the Treasury (in 1981 it was placed under the auspices of the Treasurer of the United States). The Mint had the authority to convert any precious metals into standard coinage for anyone's account with no seigniorage charge beyond refining costs.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: In the early 19th century, the intrinsic value of gold coins rose relative to their nominal equivalent in silver coins, resulting in the removal from commerce of nearly all gold coins, and their subsequent private melting. Therefore, in the Coinage Act of 1834, the 15:1 ratio of silver to gold was changed to a 16:1 ratio by reducing the weight of the nation's gold coinage. This created a new U.S. dollar that was backed by 1.50 grams (23.22 grains) of gold. However, the previous dollar had been represented by 1.60 g (24.75 grains) of gold. The result of this revaluation, which was the first devaluation of the U.S. dollar, was that the value in gold of the dollar was reduced by 6%. Moreover, for a time, both gold and silver coins were useful in commerce.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: In 1853, the weights of U.S. silver coins (except the dollar itself, which was rarely used) were reduced. This had the effect of placing the nation effectively (although not officially) on the gold standard. The retained weight in the dollar coin was a nod to bimetallism, although it had the effect of further driving the silver dollar coin from commerce. Foreign coins, including the Spanish dollar, were also widely used as legal tender, until 1857.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: With the enactment of the National Banking Act of 1863during the American Civil Warand its later versions that taxed states' bonds and currency out of existence, the dollar became the sole currency of the United States and remains so today.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: During the 19th century the dollar was less accepted around the world than the British pound. Nellie Bly carried Bank of England notes on her 1889–1890 trip around the world in 72 days; she also brought some dollars, Bly wrote, "to use at different ports as a test to see if American money was known outside of America". Traveling east from New York, she did not see American money until she found $20 gold pieces used as jewelry in Colombo; there Bly found that as currency dollars were accepted at a 60% discount.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: In 1878, the Bland–Allison Act was enacted to provide for freer coinage of silver. This act required the government to purchase between $2 million and $4 million worth of silver bullion each month at market prices and to coin it into silver dollars. This was, in effect, a subsidy for politically influential silver producers.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The discovery of large silver deposits in the Western United States in the late 19th century created a political controversy. Due to the large influx of silver, the intrinsic value of the silver in the nation's coinage dropped precipitously. On one side were agrarian interests such as the Greenback Party that wanted to retain the bimetallic standard in order to inflate the dollar, which would allow farmers to more easily repay their debts. On the other side were Eastern banking and commercial interests, who advocated sound money and a switch to the gold standard. This issue split the Democratic Party in 1896. It led to the famous Cross of Gold speech given by William Jennings Bryan, and may have inspired many of the themes in "The Wizard of Oz". Despite the controversy, the status of silver was slowly diminished through a series of legislative changes from 1873 to 1900, when a gold standard was formally adopted. The gold standard survived, with several modifications, until 1971.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: "Note: all references to 'ounce' in this section are to the troy ounce as used for precious metals, rather than to the (smaller) avoirdupois ounce used in the United States customary units system for other goods."


title: History of the United States dollar

text: Bimetallism persisted until March 14, 1900, with the passage of the Gold Standard Act, which provided that:


title: History of the United States dollar

text: ... the dollar consisting of twenty-five and eight-tenths grains of gold nine-tenths fine, as established by section thirty-five hundred and eleven of the Revised Statutes of the United States, shall be the standard unit of value, and all forms of money issued or coined by the United States shall be maintained at a parity of value with this standard ...


title: History of the United States dollar

text: Thus the United States moved to a gold standard, making both gold and silver the legal-tender coinage of the United States, and guaranteed the dollar as convertible to 25.8 grains (1.672 grams, 0.05375 troy ounces) of gold, or a little over $18.60 per ounce.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The gold standard was suspended twice during World War I, once fully and then for foreign exchange. At the onset of the war, U.S. corporations had large debts payable to European entities who began liquidating their debts in gold. With debts to Europe falling due, the dollar to (British) pound sterling exchange rate reached as high as $6.75:£1, far above the nominal (gold) parity of 4.8665:1. This caused large gold outflows until July 31, 1914, when the New York Stock Exchange closed and the gold standard was temporarily suspended. In order to defend the exchange rate of the dollar, the US Treasury Department authorized state and nationally chartered banks to issue emergency currency under the Aldrich-Vreeland Act, and the newly created Federal Reserve organized a fund to assure debts to foreign creditors. These efforts were largely successful, and the Aldrich-Vreeland notes were retired starting in November and the gold standard was restored when the New York Stock Exchange re-opened in December 1914.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: For as long as the United States remained neutral in the war, it remained the only country to maintain its gold standard, doing so without restriction on import or export of gold from 1915 to 1917. When the United States became a belligerent in the war, President Wilson banned gold export, thereby suspending the gold standard for foreign exchange. After the war, European countries slowly returned to their gold standards, though in somewhat altered form.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: During the Great Depression, every major currency abandoned the gold standard. Among the earliest, the Bank of England abandoned the gold standard in 1931 as speculators demanded gold in exchange for currency notes or in settlement of debts, threatening the solvency of the British monetary system. This pattern repeated throughout Europe and North America. In the United States, the Federal Reserve was forced to raise interest rates in order to protect the gold standard for the US dollar, worsening already severe domestic economic pressures. After bank runs became more pronounced in early 1933, people began to hoard gold coins as distrust for banks led to distrust for paper money, worsening deflation and depleting gold reserves.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: In early 1933, in order to fight severe deflation, Congress and President Roosevelt implemented a series of Acts of Congress and Executive Orders which suspended the gold standard except for foreign exchange, revoked gold as universal legal tender for debts, and banned private ownership of significant amounts of gold coin. These acts included Executive Order 6073, the Emergency Banking Act, Executive Order 6102, Executive Order 6111, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, 1933 Banking Act, the gold clause resolution, and later the Gold Reserve Act. These actions were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the "Gold Clause Cases" in 1935.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: For foreign exchange purposes, the set $20.67 per ounce value of the dollar was lifted, allowing the dollar to float freely in foreign exchange markets with no set value in gold. This was terminated after one year. Roosevelt attempted first to restabilize falling prices with the Agricultural Adjustment Act; however, this did not prove popular, so instead the next politically popular option was to devalue the dollar on foreign exchange markets. Under the Gold Reserve Act the price of gold was fixed at $35 per ounce, making the dollar more attractive for foreign buyers (and making foreign currencies more expensive for those holding dollars). This change led to more conversion of gold into dollars, allowing the U.S. to effectively corner the world gold market.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The suspension of the gold standard was considered temporary by many in markets and in the government at the time, but restoring the standard was considered a low priority to dealing with other issues.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: Under the post-World War II Bretton Woods system, all other currencies were valued in terms of U.S. dollars and were thus indirectly linked to the gold standard. The need for the U.S. government to maintain both a $35 per troy ounce (112.53cents/gram) market price of gold and also the conversion to foreign currencies caused economic and trade pressures. By the early 1960s, compensation for these pressures started to become too complicated to manage.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: In March 1968, the effort to control the private market price of gold was abandoned. A two-tier system began. In this system all central-bank transactions in gold were insulated from the free market price. Central banks would trade gold among themselves at $35/ounce (112.53¢/g) but would not trade with the private market. The private market could trade at the equilibrium market price and there would be no official intervention. The price immediately jumped to $43/ounce (138.25¢/g). The price of gold touched briefly back at $35/ounce (112.53¢/g) near the end of 1969 before beginning a steady price increase. This gold price increase turned steep through 1972 and hit a high that year of over $70/ounce (2.25$/g). By that time floating exchange rates had also begun to emerge, which indicated the "de facto" dissolution of the Bretton Woods system. The two-tier system was abandoned in November 1973. By then the price of gold had reached $100/ounce (3.22$/g).


title: History of the United States dollar

text: In the early 1970s, inflation caused by rising prices for imported commodities, especially oil, and spending on the Vietnam War that was not counteracted by cuts in other government expenditures, combined with a trade deficit to create a situation in which the dollar was worth less than the gold used to back it.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: In 1971, President Richard Nixon unilaterally ordered the cancellation of the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold. This act was known as the Nixon Shock.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The sudden jump in the price of gold after the demise of the Bretton Woods accords was a result of the significant prior debasement of the US dollar due to excessive inflation of the monetary supply via central bank (Federal Reserve) coordinated fractional reserve banking under the Bretton Woods partial gold standard. In the absence of an international mechanism tying the dollar to gold via fixed exchange rates, the dollar became a pure fiat currency and as such fell to its free market exchange price versus gold. Consequently, the price of gold rose from $35/ounce (1.125 $/g) in 1969 to almost $500 (29 $/g) in 1980.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: Shortly after the dollar price of gold started its ascent in the early 1970s, the price of other commodities such as oil also began to rise. While commodity prices became more volatile, the average price of oil as expressed in gold (or vice versa) remained much the same in the 1990s as it had been in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: United States silver certificates were a type of representative money printed from 1878 to 1964 in the United States as part of its circulation of paper currency. They were produced in response to silver agitation by citizens who were angered by the Fourth Coinage Act, and were used alongside the gold-based dollar notes. The silver certificates were initially redeemable in the same face value of silver dollar coins, and later in raw silver bullion.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: Since the early 1920s, silver certificates were issued in , , and denominations. In the 1928 series, only silver certificates were produced. Fives and tens of this time were mainly Federal Reserve notes, which were backed by and redeemable in gold. In 1933, Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act which included a clause allowing for the pumping of silver into the market to replace the gold. A new 1933 series of silver certificate was printed and released, but not many were released into circulation.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: In 1934, a law was passed in Congress that changed the obligation on Silver Certificates so as to denote the current location of the silver.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The last government regulation regarding the silver standard was in 1963, when President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 11110, delegating to the Treasury Secretary his authority to authorize the US Department of Treasury to issue silver certificates for any silver held by the U.S. Government in excess of that not already backing issued certificates. This was necessary because of Kennedy's signing of Public Law 88-36 on the same day, one of the effects of which was a repeal of the Silver Purchase Act of 1934-this act had authorized the Treasury Secretary to purchase silver bullion and issue silver certificates against it. Silver certificates continued to be issued for a short period of time in the denomination, but were discontinued in late 1963.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: A United States Note, also known as a Legal Tender Note, was a type of paper money that was issued from 1862 to 1971 in the U.S. Having been current for over 100 years, they were issued for longer than any other form of U.S. paper money. They were known popularly as "greenbacks" in their day, a name inherited from the Demand Notes that they replaced in 1862.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: While issuance of United States Notes ended in January 1971, existing United States Notes are still valid currency in the United States today, though rarely seen in circulation.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: Both United States Notes and Federal Reserve Notes are parts of the national currency of the United States, and both have been legal tender since the gold recall of 1933. Both have been used in circulation as money in the same way. However, the issuing authority for them came from different statutes. United States Notes were created as fiat currency, in that the government has never categorically guaranteed to redeem them for precious metal - even though at times, such as after the specie resumption of 1879, federal officials were authorized to do so if requested.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The difference between a United States Note and a Federal Reserve Note is that a United States Note represented a "bill of credit" and was inserted by the Treasury directly into circulation free of interest. Federal Reserve Notes are backed by debt purchased by the Federal Reserve, and thus generate seigniorage for the Federal Reserve System, which serves as a lending intermediary between the Treasury and the public.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: Congress continued to issue paper money after the Civil War, the most important of which was the Federal Reserve Note that was authorized by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Since the discontinuation of all other types of notes (Gold Certificates in 1933, Silver Certificates in 1963, and United States Notes in 1971), US dollar notes have since been issued exclusively as Federal Reserve Notes.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: World War II devastated European and Asian economies while leaving the United States' economy relatively unharmed. As European governments exhausted their gold reserves and borrowed to pay the United States for war material, the United States accumulated large gold reserves. This combination gave the United States significant political and economic power following the war.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The Bretton Woods agreement codified this economic dominance of the dollar after the war. In 1944, Allied nations sought to create an international monetary order that sustained the global economy and prevented the economic malaise that followed the First World War. The Bretton Woods agreement laid the foundations for an international monetary order that created rules and expectations for the international economic system. It created the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the predecessor of the World Bank, and an international monetary system based on fixed exchange rates. It valued the dollar at $35 per ounce of gold and the remaining signatories pegged their respective currency relative to the dollar, leading some economists to argue that Bretton Woods "dethroned" gold as the default asset.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: While Bretton Woods institutionalized the dollar's importance following the war, Europe and Asia faced dollar shortages. The international community needed dollars to finance imports from the United States to rebuild what was lost in the war. In 1948 Congress passed the European Recovery Program - generally known as the Marshall Plan – giving dollars to European countries to purchase imports needed to rebuild their economies. The plan helped European countries by providing them dollars to purchase the imports needed to produce exports, eventually allowing the countries to export enough of their own goods to obtain the dollars necessary to sustain their economies without reliance on any Marshall-like plan. At the same time, Joseph Dodge worked with Japanese officials and Congress to pass the Dodge Plan in 1949, which worked similarly to the Marshall Plan, but for Japan rather than Europe.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The Marshall and Dodge plans' successes have brought new challenges to the U.S. dollar. In 1959, dollars in circulation around the world exceeded U.S. gold reserves, which became vulnerable to the equivalent of a bank run. In 1960, Yale economist Robert Triffin described the problem to Congress: either the dollar was not freely available and other countries could not afford to import American goods, or the dollar was freely available but confidence that the dollar could be converted to gold would wane.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: Eventually, the United States chose to devalue the dollar. During the early 1960s American officials largely prevented the conversion of dollars to gold with a series of "gentlemanly" agreements and other policies – which included the London Gold Pool - but these actions were not sustainable; the danger of a run on U.S. gold reserves was too high. With Nixon's election in 1968, American officials became increasingly concerned until Nixon finally issued Executive Order 11615 in August 1971, ending the direct convertibility of dollars to gold. He said, "We must protect the position of the American dollar as pillar of monetary stability around the world ... I am determined that the American dollar must never again be hostage in the hands of the international speculators." This became known as the Nixon Shock and marked the dollar's transition from the gold standard to a fiat currency.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The United States enjoys some benefits because the dollar serves as the international reserve currency. The United States is less likely to face a balance of payments crisis.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: Today, like the currency of most nations, the dollar is fiat money, unbacked by any physical asset. A holder of a federal reserve note has no right to demand an asset such as gold or silver from the government in exchange for a note. Consequently, some proponents of the intrinsic theory of value believe that the near-zero marginal cost of production of the current fiat dollar detracts from its attractiveness as a medium of exchange and store of value because a fiat currency without a marginal cost of production is easier to debase via overproduction and the subsequent inflation of the money supply.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: In 1963, the words "PAYABLE TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND" were removed from all newly issued Federal Reserve notes. Then, in 1968, redemption of pre-1963 Federal Reserve notes for gold or silver officially ended. The Coinage Act of 1965 removed all silver from quarters and dimes, which were 90% silver prior to the act. However, there was a provision in the act allowing some coins to contain a 40% silver consistency, such as the Kennedy Half Dollar. Later, even this provision was removed, with the last circulating silver-content halves minted in 1969. All coins previously minted in silver for general circulation are now clad. During 1982, the composition of the cent was changed from copper to zinc with a thin copper coating. The content of the nickel has not changed since 1866 (except for 1942-1945 when silver and other metals were used to preserve nickel for war uses). Silver and gold coins are produced by the U.S. government, but only as non-circulating commemorative pieces or in sets for collectors.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: All circulating notes, issued from 1861 to present, will be honored by the government at face value as legal tender. This means that the federal government will accept old notes as payments for debts owed to the federal government (taxes and fees), or exchange old notes for new ones, but will not redeem notes for gold or silver, even if the note states that it may be thus redeemed. Some bills may have a premium to collectors.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The only exception to this rule is the $10,000 gold certificate of Series 1900, a number of which were inadvertently released to the public because of a fire in 1935. This set is not considered to be "in circulation" and, in fact, is stolen property. However, the government canceled these banknotes and removed them from official records. Their value, relevant only to collectors, is approximately one thousand US dollars.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, there is $1.2 trillion in total US currency in worldwide circulation as of July 2013.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The federal government began issuing paper currency during the American Civil War. As photographic technology of the day could not reproduce color, it was decided the back of the bills would be printed in a color other than black. Because the color green was seen as a symbol of stability, it was selected. These were known as "greenbacks" for their color and started a tradition of the United States' printing the back of its money in green. The author of that invention was chemist Christopher Der-Seropian. In contrast to the currency notes of many other countries, Federal Reserve notes of varying denominations are the same colors: predominantly black ink with green highlights on the front, and predominantly green ink on the back. Federal Reserve notes were printed in the same colors for most of the 20th century, although older bills called "silver certificates" had a blue seal and serial numbers on the front, and "United States notes" had a red seal and serial numbers on the front.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: In 1928, sizing of the bills was standardized (involving a 25% reduction in their current sizes, compared to the older, larger notes nicknamed "horse blankets"). The Secretary of the Treasury directed a reduction in paper currency from a  inch by  inch size to a  inch by  inch (6.31'2.69') size, which allowed the Treasury Department to produce 12 notes per  inch by  inch sheet of paper that previously would yield 8 notes at the old size. Modern U.S. currency, regardless of denomination, is ( ) wide, () long, and ( ) thick. A single bill weighs about fifteen and a half grains (one gram) and costs approximately 4.2 cents for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to produce.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: Annual releases of the 1996 series followed. The note followed on June 12, 1997, and introduced a large dark numeral with a light background on the back of the note to make it easier for people to identify the denomination. The note in 1998 introduced a new machine-readable capability to assist scanning devices. The security thread glows green under ultraviolet light, and "USA TWENTY" and a flag are printed on the thread, while the numeral "20" is printed within the star field of the flag. The microprinting is in the lower left ornamentation of the portrait and in the lower left corner of the note front. , the note was the most frequently counterfeited note in the United States. The new design of the and notes were released in 2000.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: In 2003, the Treasury announced that it would introduce new colors into the $20 bill, the first U.S. currency since 1905 (not counting the 1934 gold certificates) to have colors other than green or black. The move was intended primarily to reduce counterfeiting, rather than to increase visual differentiation between denominations. The main colors of all denominations, including the new and $50, remain green and black; the other colors are present only in subtle shades in secondary design elements. This contrasts with notes of the euro, Australian dollar, and most other currencies, where strong colors are used to distinguish each denomination from the other.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The new bills entered circulation on October 9, 2003 and the new bills on September 28, 2004. The new $10 notes were introduced in 2006 and redesigned bills began to circulate March 13, 2008. Each has subtle elements of different colors but are still primarily green and black. "The soundness of a nation's currency is essential to the soundness of its economy. And to uphold our currency's soundness, it must be recognized and honored as legal tender and counterfeiting must be effectively thwarted," Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said at a ceremony unveiling the bill's new design. Prior to its current design, the most recent redesign of the U.S. dollar bill was in 1996.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: The 2008 bill contains significant new security updates. The obverse side of the bill includes patterned yellow printing that will cue digital image-processing software to prevent digital copying, watermarks, digital security thread, and extensive microprinting. The reverse side includes an oversized purple number 5 to provide easy differentiation from other denominations.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: On April 21, 2010, the U.S. Government announced a heavily redesigned $100 bill that featured bolder colors, color shifting ink, microlenses, and other features. It was scheduled to start circulating on February 10, 2011, but was delayed due to the discovery of sporadic creasing on the notes and "mashing" (when there is too much ink on the paper, the artwork on the notes are not clearly seen). The redesigned bill was released October 8, 2013. It costs 11.8 cents to produce each bill.


title: History of the United States dollar

text: As a result of a 2008 decision in an accessibility lawsuit filed by the American Council of the Blind, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is planning to implement a raised tactile feature in the next redesign of each note, except the and the current version of the bill. It also plans larger, higher-contrast numerals, more color differences, and distribution of currency readers to assist the visually impaired during the transition period. In 2016, the Treasury announced a number of design changes to the , and bills to be introduced in this next redesign. The redesigns include:


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: There are a number of traditionally itinerant or travelling groups in Europe who are known as "Travellers" or "Gypsies".


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: The origins of the indigenous itinerant groups are unclear. They have been assumed to have taken up the travelling lifestyle out of necessity at some point during the Early Modern period but to not be ethnically distinct from their source population. However, recent DNA testing has shown that the Irish Travellers are of Irish origin but are genetically distinct from their settled counterparts due to social isolation, and more groups are being studied.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: Many groups speak their own language or dialect (distinct from the settled population); it is often a blend of the local settled language and Romani language, even in non-Romani groups.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: The largest of these groups are the Romani people, who have Indian roots and heritage, who left India around 1,500 years ago entering Europe around 1,000 years ago; this includes the Sinti people, who are themselves the second largest group. The third largest group in Europe is the Yenish, an indigenous Germanic group.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: As opposed to nomads who travel with and subsist on herds of livestock, itinerant groups traditionally travel for trade or other work for the sedentary populations amongst which they live.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: Voyageurs are a Flemish group who are related to the Dutch Travellers. The first Voyageurs slept in stables and barns they encountered in the countryside along the way. It was only later that they started building covered wagons, a simple cart with a tarpaulin over it, which they pulled themselves or for which they harnessed some dogs. Even later the horses came, and the hood carts grew into caravans.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: These Voyageurs obviously had their example in the nomadic way of life of mainly the Sinti. They partially adopted each other's customs, and mixed marriages were not uncommon. From this mixture of Romani and Western culture, a subculture of their own has emerged.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: Many also currently live in houses, which makes tracking them difficult. In addition, some are at such an advanced stage of integration into sedentary society that they do not know or deny that they are descendants of Voyageurs, ashamed of an ancestor who walked from door to door. Their number is currently estimated at 8,000, but could be much higher. They are spread all over Flanders.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: Indigenous Dutch Travellers, known in Dutch as "" (caravan dwellers), were first recorded as a population in the 1879 census, but existed from before then. They traditionally travelled around and practised traditional professions like chair bottomers, tinsmiths, broom binders, traders, peddlers, artisans, etc.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: Similar to Indigenous Norwegian Travellers, Dutch Travellers are theorised to have Yenish Traveller (German Traveller) admixture.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: Indigenous Norwegian Travellers (more commonly known as Fanter, Fantefolk or Skøyere) are an itinerant group who call themselves Reisende. Confusingly, this term is also used by Romanisæl Travellers (Tater people), the Romani group of Norway and Sweden. Unlike the Romanisæl Travellers, the indigenous Norwegian Travellers are non-Romani by culture and origins, and they do not speak any form of Romani language. Instead, their language is 'Rodi', which is a Norwegian dialect.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: Similar to Indigenous Dutch Travellers, Indigenous Norwegian Travellers are theorised to have Yenish Traveller (German Traveller) admixture and possibly could be descended from them. Norwegian Rodi includes a large proportion of Yenish loanwords. Rodi also has a handful of Scandoromani loanwords due to Romanisæl Travellers and Indigenous Norwegian Travellers both living in close proximity to each other.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: Indigenous Norwegian Travellers have always concentrated around Southern and Southwestern Norway along the coastline (which was separated from the rest of Norway due to mountains) and Romanisæl Travellers have always concentrated around Central Norway (specifically in Trøndelag county around the city of Trondheim). Historically, both groups have travelled all over, and often overlap into each other's traditional areas.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: They are known to the settled majority population as fant/fanter, but they prefer the term reisende ('travellers'). This term is also used by Romanisæl Travellers (the largest population of Romani people in Norway and Sweden), though the two groups are distinct. There are also groups in German-speaking countries who refer to themselves as Reisende, which is German for 'travellers'.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: Eilert Sundt, a 19th-century sociologist, termed the indigenous Travellers småvandrer or småvandringer ('small travellers'), to contrast them with the Romanisæl (Tater) Travellers, which Sundt called storvandrer or storvandringer ('great travellers') who ranged further in their journeys.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: By DNA, the Pavees are Irish, but have a separate language and culture than the settled Irish. They live predominantly in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Travellers refer to themselves as Mincéirí or Pavees in their own language or in Irish as an Lucht Siúil, meaning literally "the walking people". The language of the Irish Travellers, Shelta, is mainly based on an Irish lexicon and an English grammar. There are two dialects of this language: Gammon (or Gamin) and Cant. It has been dated back to the eighteenth century but may be older. The vast majority of Irish Travellers are Roman Catholics who maintain their traditions and culture in a close knit community of families.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: In 2011 an analysis of DNA from 40 Travellers showed that Irish Travellers are a distinct Indigenous Irish ethnic minority who separated from the settled Irish community at least 1000 years ago; the claim was made that they are as distinct from the settled community as Icelanders are from Norwegians.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: Like other itinerant groups they have often been racially discriminated against in the past and still are today. They were only recognised as an official ethnic group in the Republic of Ireland on March 1, 2017.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: These groups have much European blood due to mixing with Indigenous Traveller groups (British Romani Travellers mix with Irish Travellers, Scottish Highland Travellers and Funfair Traveller and Scandinavian Romani Travellers mix with Indigenous Norwegian Travellers) and even non-Travellers over the centuries. This has led to these Romani groups generally looking White in appearance.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: The best known itinerant community are the Romani people (also "Romany", "Romanies" "Tzigani", "Rromani", and variants).


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: The Romani have Indo-Aryan roots and heritage and first entered Europe via the Middle East around a thousand years ago. They spread further through Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries, separating into various subgroups in the process.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: Scottish Highland Travellers are also known as "Ceardannan" in Scottish Gaelic (which means "the craftsmen" or 'Black Tinkers') or more poetically as the "Summer Walkers".


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: The Highland Traveller community has a long history in Scotland going back on record to at least the 12th century. Historically they would travel from village to village and would pitch their bow-tents on rough ground around the edge of a village and would earn money there as tinsmiths, hawkers, horse dealers or pearl-fishermen. Many found seasonal employment on farms, e.g. doing berry picking or during harvests. Nowadays the majority of Highland Travellers have settled down into organized campsites or regular houses.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: The Scottish Highland Travellers have their own (nearly extinct) language based on Scottish Gaelic called Beurla Reagaird.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: Highland Travellers are closely tied to their native Highlands the native Gaelic speaking population; they may follow an itinerant or a settled lifestyle. They have played an essential role in the preservation of traditional Gaelic culture. Travellers' outstanding contribution to Highland life has been as custodians of an ancient and vital Gaelic singing, storytelling and folklore tradition of great importance. It is estimated that there are only 2,000 Highland Travellers leading their traditional lifestyle.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: In German-speaking Europe, France and Wallonia, there are the "Jenische" or "Yeniche" (in German and French spelling, respectively).


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: Showmen, also known as Funfair Travellers or Travelling Showpeople, are the members of families who own travelling funfairs and circuses, and are referred to as occupational travelers, who move around as part of their work. These groups formed across Europe, and included the families of travelling funfairs and circuses that required frequent mobility. These groups usually follow a set pattern of yearly nomadism. Membership of these groups has, over the years, been drawn from other communities. For example, Showmen in Great Britain and Ireland often had a mix of English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, and/or Traveller (typically Romanichal Traveller and Irish Traveller) heritage.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: As a result, Funfair Travellers are not defined as an ethnic group, even though they display certain common features, although in many countries (such as the UK) they identify as a cultural group.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: Funfair Travellers often sport unique cultures and self-identity, and they tend to be insular, favouring marriage within the community, which results in long lineages and a strong sense of cultural homogeneity. For example, the Showman's Guild of Great Britain requires that applicants have a parent from the Funfair Travelling community.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: Many Funfair Travellers in the fairground and circus business across Europe have partial Romani heritage, evidenced by significant traces of the Romani language and matriarchal forms of social organisation. Despite this, the roots, culture, traditions, and identity of showman groups have remained separate from Romani groups.


title: Itinerant groups in Europe

text: The Camminanti are an ethnic group in Sicily, originating from the end of the 14th century. They have historically lived a nomadic life.


title: Consul (representative)

text: A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people of the two countries.


title: Consul (representative)

text: A consul is distinguished from an ambassador, the latter being a representative from one head of state to another, but both have a form of immunity. There can be only one ambassador from one country to another, representing the first country's head of state to that of the second, and their duties revolve around diplomatic relations between the two countries; however, there may be several consuls, one in each of several major cities, providing assistance with bureaucratic issues to both the citizens of the consul's own country traveling or living abroad and to the citizens of the country in which the consul resides who wish to travel to or trade with the consul's country.


title: Consul (representative)

text: A less common usage is an administrative consul, who takes a governing role and is appointed by a country that has colonised or occupied another.


title: Consul (representative)

text: In classical Greece, some of the functions of the modern consul were fulfilled by a proxenos. Unlike the modern position, this was a citizen of the host polity (in Greece, a city-state). The proxenos was usually a wealthy merchant who had socio-economic ties with another city and who helped its citizens when they were in trouble in his own city. The position of proxenos was often hereditary in a particular family. Modern honorary consuls fulfill a function that is to a degree similar to that of the ancient Greek institution.


title: Consul (representative)

text: Consuls were the highest magistrates of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. The term was revived by the Republic of Genoa, which, unlike Rome, bestowed it on various state officials, not necessarily restricted to the highest. Among these were Genoese officials stationed in various Mediterranean ports, whose role included duties similar to those of the modern consul (i.e., helping Genoese merchants and sailors in difficulties with the local authorities).


title: Consul (representative)

text: The "consolat de mar" was an institution established under the reign of Peter IV of Aragon in the fourteenth century, and spread to 47 locations throughout the Mediterranean. It was primarily a judicial body, administering maritime and commercial law as "Lex Mercatoria". Although the "consolat de mar" was established by the Corts General (parliament) of the Crown of Aragon, the consuls were independent from the King. This distinction between consular and diplomatic functions remains (at least formally) to this day. Modern consuls retain limited judicial powers to settle disputes on ships from their country (notably regarding the payment of wages to sailors).


title: Consul (representative)

text: The "consulado de mercaderes" was set up in 1543 in Seville as a merchant guild to control trade with Latin America. As such, it had branches in the principal cities of the Spanish colonies.


title: Consul (representative)

text: The connection of "consul" with trade and commercial law is retained in French. In Francophone countries, a "juge consulaire" (consular judge) is a non-professional judge elected by the chamber of commerce to settle commercial disputes in the first instance (in France, sitting in panels of three; in Belgium, in conjunction with a professional magistrate).


title: Consul (representative)

text: The office of a consul is a consulate and is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an "embassy" or – between Commonwealth countries – "high commission". Like the terms "embassy" or "high commission", "consulate" may refer not only to the office of consul, but also to the building occupied by the consul and their staff. The consulate may share premises with the embassy itself.


title: Consul (representative)

text: A consul of the highest rank is termed a "consul-general and" is appointed to a "consulate-general". There is typically one or more "deputy consuls-general", "consuls", "vice-consuls", and "consular agents" working under the consul-general. A country may appoint more than one consul-general to another nation.


title: Consul (representative)

text: Consuls of various ranks may have specific legal authority for certain activities, such as notarizing documents. As such, diplomatic personnel with other responsibilities may receive consular letters patent (commissions). Aside from those outlined in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, there are few formal requirements outlining what a consular official must do. For example, for some countries, consular officials may be responsible for the issue of visas; other countries may limit "consular services" to providing assistance to compatriots, legalization of documents, etc. Nonetheless, consulates proper will be headed by consuls of various ranks, even if such officials have little or no connection with the more limited sense of consular service.


title: Consul (representative)

text: Activities of a consulate include protecting the interests of their citizens temporarily or permanently resident in the host country, issuing passports; issuing visas to foreigners and public diplomacy. However, the principal role of a consulate lies traditionally in promoting trade—assisting companies to invest and to import and export goods and services both inwardly to their home country and outward to their host country. Although it is not admitted publicly, consulates, like embassies, may also gather intelligence information from the assigned country.


title: Consul (representative)

text: Contrary to popular belief, many of the staff of consulates may be career diplomats, but they do not generally have diplomatic immunity unless they are also accredited as such. Immunities and privileges for consuls and accredited staff of consulates (consular immunity) are generally limited to actions undertaken in their official capacity and, with respect to the consulate itself, to those required for official duties. In practice, the extension and application of consular privileges and immunities can differ widely from country to country.


title: Consul (representative)

text: Consulates are more numerous than diplomatic missions, such as embassies. Ambassadors are posted only in a foreign nation's capital (but exceptionally outside the country, as in the case of a multiple mandate, e.g., a minor power may accredit a single ambassador with several neighbouring states of modest relative importance that are not considered important allies).


title: Consul (representative)

text: Consuls are posted in a nation's capital, and in other cities throughout that country, especially centres of economic activity and cities with large populations of expatriates. In the United States for example, most countries have a consulate-general in New York City (the home of the United Nations), and some have consulates-general in other major cities.


title: Consul (representative)

text: Consulates are subordinate posts of their home country's diplomatic mission (typically an embassy, in the capital city of the host country). Diplomatic missions are established in international law under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, while consulates-general and consulates are established in international law under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Formally, at least within the US system, the consular career (ranking in descending order: consul-general, consul, vice-consul, honorary consul) forms a different hierarchy from the diplomats in the strict sense. However, it is common for individuals to be transferred from one hierarchy to the other, and for consular officials to serve in a capital carrying out strictly consular duties within the "consular section" of a diplomatic post, e.g., within an embassy.


title: Consul (representative)

text: Between Commonwealth countries, both diplomatic and consular activities may be undertaken by a High Commission in the capital, although larger Commonwealth nations generally also have consulates and consulates-general in major cities. For example, Toronto, Sydney and Auckland are of greater economic importance than their respective national capitals, hence the need for consulates there.


title: Consul (representative)

text: When Hong Kong was under British administration, diplomatic missions of Commonwealth countries, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia, and Singapore were known as commissions. After the transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997, they were renamed consulates-general, with the last commissioner becoming consul-general. However, the Australian commission had been renamed the consulate-general in 1986.


title: Consul (representative)

text: Owing to Hong Kong's status as a special administrative region of China, some countries' consulates-general in Hong Kong report directly to their respective foreign ministries, rather than to their embassies in Beijing, such as those of Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.


title: Consul (representative)

text: A consul general (CG) is an official who heads a consulate general and is a consul of the highest rank serving at a particular location. A consul general may also be responsible for consular districts which contain other, subordinate consular offices within a country. The consul general serves as a representative of their state in the country where they are located, although ultimate jurisdiction over the right to speak on behalf of a home country within another country belongs to the single ambassador.


title: Consul (representative)

text: Another definition is the leader of the consular section of an embassy. This consul general is a diplomat and a member of the ambassador's country team.


title: Consul (representative)

text: Some consuls are not career officials of the represented state. They may be local people with the nationality of the sending country, and in smaller cities, or in cities that are very distant from full-time diplomatic missions, a foreign government which feels that some form of representation is nevertheless desirable may appoint a person who has not hitherto been part of their diplomatic service to fulfill this role. Such a consul may well combine the job with their own (often commercial) private activities, and in some instances may not even be a citizen of the sending country. Such consular appointments are usually given the title of "honorary consul" or "consul ad honorem".


title: Consul (representative)

text: The United States of America limits who it will recognise as honorary consuls and grants only some limited rights. In some cases "accused terror financiers, arms traffickers and drug runners" have misused their position as honorary consuls.


title: Consul (representative)

text: Despite their other roles, honorary consular officers (in the widest use of the term) in some instances also have responsibility for the welfare of citizens of the appointing country within their bailiwick. For example, the Embassy of Finland states that the tasks of Finland's Honorary Consulate include monitoring the rights of Finns and permanent residents of Finland residing in the area in which the consulate is located, providing advice and guidance for distressed Finnish citizens and permanent residents traveling abroad to that area, and assisting them in their contacts with local authorities or the nearest Finnish embassy or consulate. Certain types of notarized certificates can be acquired through an honorary consul. Together with diplomatic missions, an honorary consul promotes economic and cultural relations between Finland and the country in question and takes part in strengthening Finland's image abroad. An honorary consul can advise Finnish companies, for instance, in obtaining information about local business culture and in finding cooperation partners.


title: Consul (representative)

text: In the social life of 19th-century Lübeck as depicted in Thomas Mann's novel "Buddenbrooks" – based on Mann's thorough personal knowledge of his own birthplace – an appointment as the consul of a foreign country was a source of considerable social prestige among the city's merchant elite. As depicted in the book, the position of a consul for a particular country was in practice hereditary in a specific family, whose mansion bore the represented country's coat of arms, and with that country confirming the consul's son or other heir in the position on the death of the previous consul. As repeatedly referenced by Mann, a consul's wife was known as "Konsulin" and continued to bear that title even on the death of her husband. Characters in the book are mentioned as consuls for Denmark, the Netherlands and Portugal.


title: Lady Annabel Goldsmith

text: Lady Annabel Goldsmith (' Vane-Tempest-Stewart, formerly Birley; born 11 June 1934) is an English socialite and the eponym for a London nightclub of the late 20th century, Annabel's. She was first married for two decades to entrepreneur Mark Birley, the creator of Annabel's, her husband's inaugural members-only Mayfair club.


title: Lady Annabel Goldsmith

text: A London society hostess, during the 1960s and the 1970s, she gained notoriety in gossip columns for her extramarital affair with Anglo-French financier James Goldsmith, member of the wealthy banking Goldschmidt family of German-Jewish origin, who later became her second husband. A descendant and heiress of the Londonderry family, her primary occupation has been as a mother of six children whose births span 25 years. She is also an author and founder of the Democracy Movement, a Eurosceptic political advocacy group. Among her children are the journalist and film producer Jemima Goldsmith and Zac Goldsmith, the former Conservative MP for Richmond Park.