Stelo

The Stelo ("star"; plural: Steloj) was from 1945 to 1993 a monetary unit of Esperantists, one of whose aims was to achieve a single world currency. Attempts at an earlier currency, the Speso, with derived units like the Spesmilo, were cut short by the First World War. For a time the Universal League (in Esperanto: ), an arm of the Esperanto movement, issued coupons and coins denominated in Steloj, making attempts to link the Stelo to existing currencies on the basis of relative purchasing power in different countries.

For Esperantists concerned with international relationships the need for a currency with a fixed purchasing power was very important. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Esperanto in 1912, the Swiss firm Holy Frères struck coins for the World Esperanto Association — the Speso (plural: Spesoj) — in the denominations spesdeko (10 spesoj), spescento (100 spesoj), spesmilo (1,000 spesoj) and spesdekmilo (10,000 spesoj). The First World War, however, put an end to this initiative.

On 14 April 1942, the 25th anniversary of the death of L. L. Zamenhof, a group of faithful Esperantists had gathered in secret in a private residence in The Hague to remember him. The Netherlands were then under Nazi occupation and the group had already experienced the tyranny of the police state. Esperantists had been among the groups especially persecuted and even exterminated by the Nazis, and they now wanted jointly to undertake a concrete task to help save mankind from "world catastrophe."

After discussion, the Esperantists agreed to form the Universal League as an organization whose principal purpose would be to implement Zamenhof's original program: to unite humanity in peace through a common language. Employing the motto "One World, One Language, One Currency," the Netherlands-based group promoted the use of the Stelo as a universal currency unit.

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