FAKE NEWS: THE QUATLOO OF TRISKELION

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V23 2020 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 23, Number 10, March 8, 2020, Article 16

"The correspondence on the "Richmond Dollars" is interesting. I have never heard of any such thing, and I note that the quoted article refers to siege coins allegedly issued by General Gordon of Khartoum, which appear to be equally unknown to numismatists despite detailed knowledge of Gordon's siege currency.

"The publication cited as the source of the notice, Pearson's Weekly, was known in its time for publishing some notable fiction. Perhaps this was some of its lesser-known fiction. I remember during my time at Coin World when the publication made a brief but humorous mention of the Quatloo of Triskelion being demonetized. We received several letters (actual ink on dead trees) from Trekkies who got the joke. Margo was not amused.

"P.S.: I had nothing to do with the Quatloo filler being published, other than to encourage, along with David T. Alexander, the author of it to disregard his wiser second thoughts about letting it get into the paper."

A search on the Newman Numismatic Portal leads to a June 3, 2013 Coin World mention by David Alexander about the filler item (pg. 24). A web search turned up an undated article about the piece. Here's an excerpt - see the complete article online. -Editor

In this episode, the bridge crew of the USS Enterprise was captured by an alien race from the planet Triskelion and forced to participate in gladiator-style games while the audience bet on the outcome of each match in the planet’s unit of currency, the "quatloo." Capt. James T. Kirk, for example, had to fight against a slave or "drill thrall" called Shahna, played by the actress Angelique Pettyjohn, who was dressed in the standard (and sexist) Star Trek style for a woman from an alien civilization (meaning as little clothing that the standards of the 1960s allowed on television). During the match, which was supposed to be to the death, wagers were called out in units of quatloos by the leaders of the planet. Kirk managed to defeat Shahna though he declined to kill her and helped in defeating the evil Providers, who ran the games.

The episode was not one of the series’ best but it was one of the few that had anything remotely like a money reference.

Many readers asked the same question. What the heck was a "quatloo" and where was "Triskelion"? The correspondents had never heard of the place nor the currency unit. A smaller number of Trekkies among the readership caught the reference and wrote, essentially, "Hey, cool reference."

Eventually the letters came to the attention of the news editor and of Margo Russell, our editor. Margo thought it cute, but the news editor mildly admonished me. Somewhere in my files I still have a clipping of my quatloo filler.

Today, being older and wiser and more experienced, I can only look back at that time and ask myself, "What was I thinking?"

Still, I am not going to take any credit for introducing the concept of "fake news." That kind of thing happened long before I was born.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
THE 'RICHMOND DOLLARS' (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n09a26.html)