document_title: List of High School DxD characters

question_text: who is the main character in highschool dxd

question_tokens: who is the main character in highschool dxd

text: List of High School DxD characters

text: Creation and conception[edit]

text: Author Ichiei Ishibumi had previously worked on a horror genre series two years before publishing the first light novel for High School DxD. In the volume 1 afterword, he mentions that he changed his writing style, and wanted to develop one in the school-life, love-comedy, battle, and fantasy genre. His main character Issei was made into a lecherous guy at the request of his editor. For the first volume, he made Rias a second lead character and heroine, and Asia to be the second heroine. Some of his characters are loosely referenced from the Bible, non-fiction books, and mythology. He created a world where the war between the three main factions (angels, devils, and fallen angels) is over, and where many famous angels and devils have already ceased to exist. He also added characters and legendary beasts from a variety of places from Norse mythology to Japanese yokai.[LN 1 afterword] Ishibumi named the Four Great Devils after characters from the Gundam media franchise. For example, Sir Zechs Lucifer is a combination of Char Aznable and Zechs Merquise, and Millicas is named after Merquise and Aznable's real names Milliardo and Casval.[1]

text: In Volume 5 of the light novels, Ishibumi writes that he likes to pair the main characters: Rias and Akeno as the big sister duo, Asia and Xenovia are the church-related duo who become friends, Gasper and Koneko are the young first-years, and Issei and Yuto are the guys.[LN 5 afterword]

text: When Rias' English voice actress Jamie Marchi was writing the dub script, she noted it was a breast-centric show, even noting that they have sound effects for when they move. She saw the main heroine Rias was calm and stern and a character that she isn't used to playing. She also liked giving the side characters more personality.[2] Ishibumi also agrees with the appeal of the characters' oppai (breasts) especially in later volumes of the light novels, and had planned to make the heroines more erotic,[LN 1 afterword] especially in the side story volumes that focus on comedy.[LN 7 afterword]

text: Protagonists[edit]

text: Most of the protagonists serve as members of Kuoh Academy's Occult Research Club, a team of ten devils, an angel and a dragon which is a front for Rias Gremory's team of devils.[LN 1] They are involved in various devil activities from making contracts with humans to participating in Rating Games and other conflicts that involve the school.[LN 2] At the end of volume 4 of the light novels (and the second anime series), fallen angel leader Azazel becomes the club's adviser, and has the girls live at Issei Hyodo's home.[LN 4][S2 ep 12]

text: Issei Hyoudou[edit]

text: Voiced by: Yūki Kaji[3] (Japanese); Scott Freeman (Season 1–2),[4] Josh Grelle (Season 3–present)[5] (English)

text: Issei Hyodo (兵藤 一誠, Hyōdō Issei, Issei Hyoudou)[a] is the viewpoint character and main protagonist of High School DxD. Introduced as a second-year high school student at Kuoh Academy, he has a reputation of being a pervert. Raynare, posing as Yuma Amano, goes out on a date with him. However, Issei realizes too late that the date was a trap set up by Raynare, and is fatally stabbed in the abdomen. After he is revived by Rias Gremory, he becomes a devil and her servant, where he joins the school's Occult Research Club.[6] Ishibumi describes him as "a guy who loves girls and is really stupid".[LN 1 afterword]

text: Issei demonstrates great potential as his resurrection required Rias to consume all eight pawns of her allotted team.[S1 ep 5] Learning that he can assemble his own team in the future, he aspires to become a Harem King.[S1 ep 2] He tries to protect and help his friends,[S1 ep 3] some of whom fall in love with him, but while he enjoys their lustful affections, he hesitates to get serious with them because of the trauma suffered from Amano.[LN 10] As he progresses, he becomes a middle-rank devil,[LN 12] and acquires a familiar named Skithblathnir.[LN 13][LN 14] He later reaches the upper-ranks, with Asia, Xenovia, Ravel and Rossweisse as part of his group.[LN 22]

text: Issei's main item in combat is the Boosted Gear[b],[3] a Sacred Gear which initially takes the form of a gauntlet on his left arm.[S1 ep 3] Rias reveals that the Gear is one of the Thirteen Longinus items;[S1 ep 5] as it houses Ddraig,[S1 ep 12] the Red Dragon Emperor.[S1 ep 9]  His abilities with the Gear include: Boost enables him to double his powers every ten seconds;[S1 ep 4]  Boosted Gear Gift[c] lets him amplify his ally's ability; [LN 5][S1 ep 11] and Dragon Shot[d] fires a beam against his enemies.[S1 ep 9] He can be promoted to use additional abilities associated with higher ranked pieces, either by reaching an opponent's headquarters during a Rating Game, or with the permission of the King.[S1 ep 11] Over the course of the series, he becomes more powerful and acquires abilities and powers such as  Juggernaut Drive,[LN 6] Balance Breaker Scale Mail,[LN 4][S1 ep 12], Illegal Move Trident[e] (which allows him to be promoted without the restrictions)[LN 8][LN 10]; Dividing Wyvern Fairy[LN 16] and Longinus Smasher.[LN 17]  He also has not-so-serious techniques that he uses against his female opponents including: Dress Break[f] obliterates a girl's clothes after previously touching her;[S1 ep 10] and Bilingual[g] listens to her inner thoughts as if her breasts are talking.

text: Rias Gremory[edit]

text: Asia Argento[edit]

text: Voiced by: Azumi Asakura[3] (Japanese); Chloe Daniels (Season 1–3),[4] Leah Clark (Season 4–present) (English)

text: While being raised as a nun of the Catholic Church, Asia Argento (アーシア・アルジェント, Āshia Arujento), a blonde-haired girl, develops her abilities to heal people. However, Diodora Astaroth injures himself and has Asia heal him. As a result, Asia is excommunicated from the church.[S1 ep 4] When she moves to Japan, she befriends Issei, but is abducted by Raynare who steals her rings and kills her. After a lengthy battle, Rias revives her to become a devil and serve as her bishop.[S1 ep 5] She moves into the Hyodo residence and transfers to their school.[S1 ep 6] Despite her devil identity, Asia tries to continue her faith, although whenever she prays or reads the Bible, she initially gets a severe headache.[S1 ep 6][S1 ep 9][note 1] She possesses a set of Sacred Gear rings called Twilight Healing[h].[3]

text: Asia is strongly attracted to Issei as her first friend; she is jealous whenever he acts perverted towards the other girls, asking that he redirect his actions towards her. This makes Issei conflicted between wanting to protect her innocence and indulging in her affections.[S1 ep 8][S2 ep 1][S2 ep 2] Her familiar is a baby Sprite Dragon named Rassei[i][S1 ep 7] She later becomes a Dragon User, [LN 14] and after Rias and Akeno graduate, she becomes the club's new president.[LN 18]

text: Akeno Himejima[edit]

text: Voiced by: Shizuka Itō[3] (Japanese); Teri Rogers (Season 1–2),[4] Kelly Angel (Season 3–present)[5] (English)

text: Akeno Himejima (姫島 朱乃, Himejima Akeno) is the black-haired vice-president of the Occult Research Club; she wears her hair in a long ponytail. Issei describes her as an ideal Japanese woman with a pretty face that is always smiling, and along with Rias, make up the two great big sisters that are idolized at the school.[ LN 1] She exhibits a gentle personality, but during combat, becomes highly sadistic.[S1 ep 3]. As Rias's queen, she possesses a variety of abilities, preferring elemental attacks[S1 ep 3] such as lightning strikes.[LN 3] She transforms her costume to that of a shrine priestess[S1 ep 4] and assumes the nickname Priestess of Thunder.[S1 ep 10]

text: Later on, she helps draw off energy from Issei's Boosted Gear by sucking on his finger, and flirts more openly with him.[7][S2 ep 7] She is later revealed to be the daughter of the fallen angel leader Baraqiel and a human shrine maiden.[S2 ep 6] After showing Issei her mixed wings, she is concerned he will hate her, but he accepts her, after which she acts more affectionately towards him, saying that she does not mind being third (after Rias and Asia).[LN 4] Eventually, Issei convinces her to add her fallen angel aspects to her abilities, creating the Holy Lightning attack.[LN 5] She gets in a conflict with her father in volume 7 that causes her to act unstable and fragile, but Issei helps her reconcile with him.[LN 7]

text: Over the course of the series, Akeno continues to progress her abilities. She acquires Fallen Angel Mode (堕天使モード, Datenshi Mōdo), which increases her Holy Lightning abilities, and passes the promotion exam for the middle-class devil rank.[LN 12] In a later volume, she creates Raikouryuu, an Eastern dragon made of Holy Lightning.[LN 14]

text: Koneko Toujou[edit]

text: Voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu[3] (Japanese); Jad Saxton[4] (English)

text: A white-haired two-tailed humanoid nekomata raised by a devil, Shirone (白音) has to witness her master being killed in self-defense at the hands of Kuroka, who becomes a stray devil. Sentenced to death for her crimes, Shirone is rescued by Sir Zechs Lucifer and Rias takes her in, giving her the name Koneko Toujou (塔城 小猫, Tōjō Koneko).[LN 5] Koneko eventually becomes a first-year student at Kuoh Academy. Issei describes Koneko as petite with a loli-face, a mascot character admired by both boys and girls.[S1 ep 2] Her position in Rias's group is the rook, where she withstands crushing forces and can throw heavy objects with little effort.[S1 ep 3] Although she is quiet and cool-headed, rarely showing emotion, she is often irritated with Issei's perverted tactics.[LN 5] Her familiar is a small white cat named Shiro (シロ).[S1 ep 7] Ishibumi discussed Koneko's identity with his editor but it was not fleshed out for over a year until Volume 5.[LN 5 afterword]

text: Yuuto Kiba[edit]

text: Voiced by: Kenji Nojima[3] (Japanese); Sean O'Connor[4] (English)

text: Yuuto Kiba (木場 祐斗, Kiba Yūto) is a blond-haired second-year student and the school's top prince.[LN 22] He serves as the knight on Rias's team.[S1 ep 3] His Sacred Gear, Sword Birth[j], lets him generate swords with various properties for their blades, such as Holy Eraser (a blade that devours light) or Flame Delete (an ice blade that negates fire attacks). He can also generate a large number of blades from the ground to pierce enemies or give him more options in combat.[S1 ep 11] Ishibumi created Yuto to add appeal to the female readers of his series, [LN 4 afterword] and has him develop as the ace of the team as well as a strong backing character for Issei.[LN 5 afterword]

text: Yuuto is the sole child survivor of the Holy Sword Project, which tries to develop children that can wield the Holy Swords that can destroy devils. He nearly dies from escaping the destruction of the children, but is saved by Rias, and becomes her servant.[S2 ep 2] Hoping to avenge the death of his comrades, he seeks to destroy the Holy Sword Excalibur's remnants.[S2 ep 3] During his battle against Kokabiel and Freed Sellzen, he receives a crystal that contains the souls of his comrades from the project's leader Valper Galilei, and uses it to make his ultimate Balance Breaker sword form called Sword of Betrayer[k], which has both Holy and Demonic attributes.[S2 ep 5]

text: Ishibumi purposely gave light novel volume 3 a boy's love-themed title as that story focused mainly on Yuuto.[LN 3 afterword] Following the battle, he acts more friendly towards Issei, although some of his statements make Issei uncomfortable.[S2 ep 7] Yuuto's familiar is a small bird, but Issei refuses to express further interest in the topic.[S1 ep 7]

text: In volume 12, Yuuto defeats Siegfried after the latter's demonic sword Gram accepts him as his new master. Other demonic swords choose Yuto, and he is also officially promoted to the middle-class devil rank.[LN 12] However, in volume 17, he has difficulty controlling Gram.[LN 17]. Following Akeno's graduation, he becomes Vice-President of the Occult Research Club.[LN 18]

text: Xenovia Quarta[edit]

text: Voiced by: Risa Taneda[8] (Japanese); Ramona Newel[9][10][11] (English)

text: Raised by a swordswoman-turned-angel named Griselda Quarta, Xenovia Quarta (ゼノヴィア・クァルタ, Zenovia Kuaruta)[LN 19] becomes an exorcist and member of the Catholic Church. Along with her partner Irina Shido, they are sent to retrieve or destroy the stolen Excalibur swords. She has blue hair with part of her hair dyed green and is first seen wearing traditional Christian clothing.[S2 ep 2][S2 ep 3] When Xenovia discovers that the God of the church no longer exists, she is exiled from the church as a heretic, becomes a devil for Rias's team as a knight, and joins the school in Issei's year.[S2 ep 6] She reconciles with Asia Argento for her misdeeds towards her during their first encounter and they become friends soon after. Xenovia later moves into the Hyodo residence,[LN 4] She seduces Issei Hyodo by telling him she wants to make a baby with him because they both have strong genetics.[7][S2 ep 7]

text: Xenovia uses the Holy Sword Excalibur Destruction[l]; however, during the battle against Kokabiel, she brings out the Holy Sword Durandal, allowing her to cut through anything. A natural Holy Sword user, she possesses the genes that enable her to wield a Holy Sword instead of having them implanted as with Freed and Irina.[S2 ep 5] she has her Durandal sword fused with some of the Excalibur fragments to create Ex-Durandal[m], which is able to transform into one of the seven Excaliburs.[LN 9] When Cao Cao shatters Ex-Durandal, she repairs with the final Excalibur fragment from Arthur Pendragon,[LN 12] and masters the powers of six of the seven Excaliburs.[LN 14]. Following Sona's graduation,[LN 17] Xenovia is eventually appointed to the student council as its president.[LN 19] Ishibumi describes Xenovia as "a troublesome girl because she does things she doesn't understand herself which she regrets afterwards." and that Issei calls her a girl who a person cannot “grasp a hold of”.[LN 3 afterword]

text: Irina Shidou[edit]

text: Voiced by: Maaya Uchida[8] (Japanese); Kristi Kang[12] (English)

text: Irina Shidou (紫藤 イリナ, Shidō Irina) is a Church follower and Issei's childhood friend. Ishibumi developed her as a character that represented someone on the Heaven/Church side of the three factions.[LN 3 afterword] She was a tomboy who has since styled her hair into twintails. She bears the Holy Sword Excalibur Mimic[n], which transforms itself into any shape its user desires. Although she is saddened that Issei has become a devil, she still has feelings for him.[S2 ep 2][S2 ep 3] In the storyline involving the Grigori, Irina is defeated by Freed Sellzen, and her Excalibur Mimic is taken.[S2 ep 4] She is sent to the Church headquarters to recover,[S2 ep 6] and returns as a representative of the Church to support Michael at the summit.[LN 4] She reappears in Volume 6 where she joins Xenovia and Asia as a group which Issei calls the "Church Trio" (教会トリオ, Kyōkai Torio).[LN 6 afterword]

text: Like Xenovia, she sometimes shows a lack of common sense: in one early instance, she spends her and Xenovia's money on a fake painting of a saint, and ends up having to beg for food.[LN 3] In another instance, when Xenovia and Asia are seducing Issei; she proclaims that it is too dirty, but clarifies that she meant the location rather than the act itself.[S3 ep 6] Regardless, she is attracted to Issei and is concerned whether having Issei's babies will put her at risk of being a fallen angel.[volume & issue needed]

text: As of volume 6, she becomes an angel with the Ace ranking, which allows her to throw spears of light. She also moves into Issei's residence.[LN 6] In Volume 17, she gains a second pair of wings,[LN 17] and later obtains her own Holy Sword, Hauteclere.[LN 18]

text: Gasper Vladi[edit]

text: Voiced by: Ayane Sakura[8] (Japanese); Alison Viktorin (English)

text: Gasper Vladi (ギャスパー・ヴラディ, Gyasupā Vuradi) is a cross-dressing dhamphir, a half-vampire boy who is a bishop on Rias's team.[LN 4].[LN 4] His Sacred Gear, Forbidden Balor View[o], lets him freeze time whatever is in his field of vision, but because he is unable to control it, he is sealed in a remote room in the school, and acts as a shut-in.[S2 ep 9] Ishibumi notes that Gasper's being a cross-dressing, vampire, shut-in gave him a lot of material to work with.[LN 4 afterword]

text: As a child of a Vampire Lord and a human woman, Gasper is frequently ridiculed by the Vampires, including those in his clan.[S2 ep 9] Combined with his shyness and Sacred Gear, he tends to hide a lot and not make friends.[S2 ep 9] After the club rescues him from the clutches of Cattleya Leviathan, he becomes more open to attending school, although he sometimes hides his face under a paper bag or hides in a cardboard box. He is able to control his power better after drinking Issei's blood.[LN 4]

text: In Volume 12 when he heard about Issei's death from Georg, who mocked Issei's sacrifice, this caused Gasper to undergo a change where he created an enormous amount of darkness that literally devoured everything (even the mist created by Dimension Lost, although where anything devoured "went" is unknown), which allows him to defeat Georg. These shadows are capable of turning into grotesque parodies of creatures.[LN 12]

text: In Volume 16, Gasper returns to his birthplace to meet up with Rias and Yuuto who were confined in the Tepes Castle. He was then reunited with his childhood friend, Valerie, who became the new "King" of the Tepes Clan, but was greatly saddened to see her mentally broken due to overusing the Longinus, Sephiroth Graal, caused by Marius Tepes. Angered and disgusted by Marius and the Vampires that made use of Valerie, Gasper's hidden power awakens and he killed Marius and the Vampires that supported him. It is revealed that he was born with a fragment of the consciousness of the original god Balor, and created a different aspect of him, called Forbidden Invade Balor the Beast. Its power is so great that has the potential to become the 14th Longinus. [LN 16]

text: Azazel[edit]

text: Voiced by: Rikiya Koyama (Japanese); Phil Parsons[9] (English)

text: Azazel (アザゼル, Azazeru) is the Governor-General of the fallen angels. He is interested in the Sacred Gears and collects a vast number of them to study.[S2 ep 4] In the anime series, he introduces himself as a regular patron of Issei, asking him to accompany him for drinks or to play video games. However, he formally introduces himself halfway into the second anime series.[S2 ep 6] He becomes the club's advisor and a teacher at Kuoh.[LN 4]  Ishibumi created Azazel with the role of a coach, so that he does not participate in Rating Games, and also, along with Yuto Kiba, appeal to the female readers of his series. He also uses him as a "strong and cool explanation character." [LN 4 afterword].

text: According to Sir Zechs Lucifer, Azazel dislikes fighting, which was the reason why the Fallen Angels were the first to retreat from the war. He is very laid back and relaxed, He meets up with the leaders of the Devils and Angels to form a truce. While fighting with Cattleya Leviathan, Azazel is forced to cut off his arm in self-defense and replaces it with a prosthetic arm made from his Sacred Gear research. Azazel has a self-made artificial Sacred Gear that is used to seal Fafnir, the Golden Dragon and one of the five Dragon Kings.

text: Azazel's artificial Sacred Gear, Down Fall Dragon Spear[p], takes the form of a jewel, as its core and its exterior are fragile, and forcefully activates its Balance Breaker, the Down Fall Dragon Another Armor[q], which creates a Golden Dragon Armor that is similar to Issei and Vali's Scale Mail. He also has a second artificial Sacred Gear called the Blazer Shining Aura Darkness Blade[r].

text: In Volume 12, Azazel resigns from his post as Governor-General of the Fallen Angels, which is now succeeded by Shemhazai, and became Grigori's Advisor of Special Technology and supervisor for Issei's town.[LN 12]

text: Rossweisse[edit]

text: Voiced by: Ai Kakuma[13] (Japanese); Mallorie Rodak[14] (English)

text: Rossweisse (ロスヴァイセ, Rosuvaise) is a silver-haired Valkyrie who excels in Norse magic, first appearing in Volume 5 of the light novels, and in the third anime series.[15] She wears white armor or a business suit. Introduced as Odin's bodyguard, Rossweisse always prevents him from doing dirty things; however in retaliation, Odin always teases her for being a Valkyrie that has no boyfriend. Eventually, after the battle with Loki and Fenrir, Odin leaves her in Issei's town and later gets persuaded by Rias to become her servant, her ranking being "Rook" alongside Koneko, and remains in Kuoh Academy as a teacher.

text: Unlike most of the female characters who already have a crush on Issei, she is still figuring out if she likes him or not. She is extremely bitter on the fact that she does not have a boyfriend and gets angry when she is made fun of for that. Odin uses this several times to knock the wind out of her when she is protesting or interfering with him doing something vulgar. She has a tendency to buy things at sales when they're cheap, allowing Issei to coin for her the nickname "The 100-Yen Shop Valkyrie" (100均ヴァルキリー). This also shows during the Kyoto trip when Issei used dress break on her so he could peep on the female students in the hot springs by her getting mad and lecturing him about destroying her clothes before getting embarrassed about being naked. She moves into the Hyodo Residence in Volume 8. She left to train with a Norse mage she knows in Volume 11 and returns in Volume 12 after learning new, powerful defensive spells along with how to combine them with the defensive traits of Rook. Thus, gaining enough power to defend against Balance Breakers and even the equivalent of 10x the damage that Heracles' Balance Breaker can create.

text: In Volume 14 both the Gremory and Sitri groups are surprised to hear her speak in an unpolished, country voice while talking to her grandmother in her homeland. Also, its noted that part of the reason she is so concerned about money is that she has been sending money over to her grandmother, to help out since the area her hometown is in is described as having nothing and essentially barren. She is currently pursuing two goals, the first is to create a school to teach devils how to become Valkyries, and the second is to open a discount store that carries everything in her homeland. In Volume 17 she asks Issei to pretend to be her boyfriend to convince her grandmother Göndul that she is safe in her new life as a devil and as teacher. During her date with Issei, she mentions that when she was a student she wrote an essay that could show a way of sealing the Trihexa (666). Sona invites her to be an expositor at the inauguration of her school and even offers her a position as teacher in a few years. Euclid Lucifuge tries to kidnap her not only for the information, but also because he sees her as a replacement for his sister Grayfia. She helps Issei defeat him and it becomes clear that she has finally fallen in love with him.

text: Ravel Phenex[edit]

text: Voiced by: Asuka Nishi (Japanese); Brittney Karbowski (English)

text: Ravel Phenex (レイヴェル・フェニックス, Reiveru Fenikkusu) is the blonde-haired younger sister of Riser Phenex and a former member of his team.[S1 ep 11] She first appears in volume 2 of the light novels as a bishop who has yet to reveal her true powers.[LN 2] She follows her brother in the belief that no one could defeat him. After witnessing Riser's defeat, she becomes infatuated with Issei (albeit with tsundere tendencies), and later transfers to his school so she can spend more time with him.[LN 10] Ishibumi notes that Ravel's popularity with readers after volume 6 prompted him to make her a main character.[LN 6 afterword]

text: When Ravel was young she developed a great fondness for the hero stories that her butler told her. As a result, she dreamed of becoming a woman who could become a support for her ideal hero but as she grew older she slowly forgot this dream. Watching Issei fight for the sake of the woman he loves at Riser's engagement party reminded Ravel of her forgotten dream and instilled a desire to understand everything about him.

text: As the story develops, she falls in love with him completely, and does not mind becoming his concubine so long as she can be with him. She is currently a "free" bishop: her mother (who does not participate in Rating Games) traded one of her unused bishop pieces to Riser for Ravel. She has later traded herself to become one of Issei's Bishops when he has gained peerage, as she wanted to be of use to Issei. She moves into the Hyodo Residence in Volume 10 and enrolls in Kuoh Academy as a first-year student, alongside Koneko and Gasper. She is in Koneko's class at school and despite the two of them bickering often (paying homage to the vitriolic relationship between cats and birds, given their species), they are very close friends. Currently, she is one of Issei's managers (alongside Grayfia) and had been tutoring him so that he is able to pass the written part of the exam to become a Middle-Class Devil. During the events of Volume 12, the Phoenix family indicates that not only are they going to allow her to "stay" at Issei's house to "attend school", they are also hoping that she enters into an intimate relationship with Issei (for various reasons).

text: Ophis[edit]

text: Voiced by: Suzuko Mimori (Japanese); Megan Shipman (English)

text: Ophis (オーフィス, Ōfisu), known as Ouroboros Dragon[s] and the Infinite Dragon God[t], is a dragon that is said to be more powerful than God and the devil kings;[S2 ep 12] she also has the ability to transform into a black-haired humanoid. She organized the Chaos Brigade with the hopes of getting rid of Great Red from the Dimensional Gap. However, she was betrayed by Cao Cao who stole her power under the intention of creating another Ophis, rendering her in a presumed powerless state. Cao Cao, however, underestimated her, as she has released her powers in forms of snakes before Cao Cao came to steal her powers. As such, she did not lose most of her powers. Like Great Red, Ophis does not like to interfere in the matters of the world, having interest only in Great Red. As such, she is more of a figurehead than a leader of the Chaos Brigade, and any plans or acts not pertaining to Great Red were by the will of the members, not hers.

text: In Volume 12, she is rescued by Great Red and helped him in restoring Issei's body. The two seem interested in Issei, and both were saying "Zoom Zoom Iyaaan" after the battle with the Jabberwocky to Issei and Ddraig's dismay. Although she does not say it, she is probably very fond of Issei, as he is her first friend and had offered her a home in his house in Volume 11. This is a big deal as she had helped protect Asia and Irina later in the volume simply because they had tea and played cards together. According to Issei, Orphis is not evil, just naïve and did not mind being used by the Chaos Brigade, as they had promised to kill Great Red for her. Currently, the faction heads have used numerous seals to hide her presence. This is to avoid upsetting members of their factions and hide her from the remaining members of the Chaos Brigade. Even with the power stolen from her, they are aware that she is too powerful to control, but are allowing her to stay with Issei to encourage the interest she seems to be showing for him. She later moves into the Hyodo Residence at the end of Volume 12 to continue "observing" Issei, saying she has a vested interest in him as a part of her was used to recreate Issei's body with Great Red's flesh. Currently, she seems to be welcoming the feeling of having an actual home and friends, even to the point of not attempting to do any significant damage to Great Red other than kicking him during the time she and Issei were riding his back.

text: Devils[edit]

text: Devils (悪魔, Akuma) represent one of the three major supernatural groups (the others being the fallen angels and the angels in a three-way struggle over the control of the world). Because of the great war hundreds of years ago, the devils have become few in number, so they have organized themselves by a feudal system in which the higher-ranked devils lead a small group of up to 15 servants, each of whom is designated by a piece in the game of chess, and has enormous powers. The servants are lower-ranked devils, some of whom are made from humans. However, if a devil were to free themselves from their master they are known as a stray devil and are to be executed.[LN 1] The devils overall are led by the Four Great Devils (四大魔王, Yondai Maō, also Four Devil Kings), who are titled by devil names from folklore.[LN 3]

text: Sona Sitri[edit]

text: Genshirou Saji[edit]

text: Riser Phenex[edit]

text: Sirzechs Lucifer[edit]

text: Grayfia Lucifuge[edit]

text: Serafall Leviathan[edit]

text: Tsubaki Shinra[edit]

text: Sairaorg Bael[edit]

text: Ajuka Beelzebub[edit]

text: Stray devils[edit]

text: Stray devils are devils who have betrayed or killed their masters.[S1 ep 3]

text:
Viser (バイサー, Baisā) is a stray devil who assumes the form of a centaur and shoots acid from her breasts.[S1 ep 3][importance?]
Gentleman Alchemist (錬金術師の紳士, Renkinjutsu-shi no Shinshi)

text: Breast Chimera

text: Other devils[edit]

text: Other groups and organizations[edit]

text: Fallen angels[edit]

text: Fallen angels (堕天使, Datenshi) are angels who used to serve God but because of their corrupt emotions, have descended into the underworld, and battle against the devils.[S1 ep 2] Their appearances are similar to those of the angels, albeit with black wings and lacking a halo above their head. Even though they have been cast out from Heaven, fallen angels have somehow retained the ability to use light-based weapons. However, they receive damage like devils do if they pray to God. The Grigori (グリゴリ, Gurigori) is a group of fallen angels and humans also known as the Ones Who Watch Over the Children of God.[S2 ep 3] Members include humans exiled from the Church and Sacred Gear wielders. Like devils, they mainly live in the Underworld.

text: Supporting Raynare are the following fallen angels: Dohnaseek (ドーナシーク, Dōnashīku), who dresses in a trenchcoat and fedora;[S1 ep 1] Kalawarner (カラワーナ, Karawāna), a blue-haired woman in a minidress who is the first one to be hit by Issei's Sacred Gear attack;[S1 ep 2] and Mittelt (ミッテルト, Mitteruto), who has blonde hair dresses as a gothic lolita..[S1 ep 4] The fallen angels are eventually killed by Rias.[S1 ep 5]

text: Angels[edit]

text: Angels (天使, Tenshi) are the beings from Heaven, which in Ishibumi's DxD world, supports all the religions, including the Church that Asia and Xenovia were part of.[LN 6 afterword] They have the powers to inflict pain upon devils due to their light-based powers. They have white wings (golden wings for Archangels) and a halo above their head. During the great war between the three factions (angels, fallen angels and devils), God and the original Four Devil Kings die. The angels are unable to increase their numbers[S2 ep 6] until the creation of the Brave Saints[as] system which reincarnates humans into angels and assigns them positions associated with playing cards, much like the devils and their Evil Pieces. Meanwhile, the archangel Michael takes over maintenance of the system and keeps it a secret from the followers of the Church.[S2 ep 6]

text: Mythological deities[edit]

text: Some of the deities associated with mythology make appearances in the series:

text:
Zeus (ゼウス, Zeusu) is the leader of the Gods of Greek mythology.[LN 10]
Poseidon (ポセイドン) appears in a side story where he wields a Trident to control the sea.[LN 10]
Hades (ハーデス, Hādesu) is the God of the Realm of the Dead and the true mastermind behind the Chaos Brigade. He commands a legion of Grim Reapers. He is stronger than Michael, Azazel and the current Maous combined. Hades gets along well with humans but despises the Devils and Fallen Angels. However, Lucifer and Beelzebub are the only two Maous that can currently fight him. His body consists of only bones and gives out a creepy aura.
Pluto (プルート, Purūto) is a Grim Reaper under Hades.[LN 12]
Odin (オーディン, Ōdin) is a perverted yet nonetheless powerful God who wields the legendary spear Gungnir in battle.[LN 5] Voiced by: Shinpachi Tsuji (Japanese); R Bruce Elliott (English).
Loki (ロキ, Roki) comes to Issei's town to create Ragnarok but is defeated by the combined effort of the Gremory and Vali Team. After his defeat, he was placed under many layers of sealing. Voiced by: Takayuki Kondō (Japanese); John Burgmeier (English).
Indra (インドラ, Indora), from Hindu mythology, is confronted by Azazel after the Rating Game between Issei and Sairaorg, where he revealed the fact that he had known Cao Cao and the whereabout of the True Longinus as well as his alliance with Hades for a long time, but opted to do nothing and has kept the fact hidden from everyone. In Volume 12, Indra sends the majority of the Hero Faction to the Realm of the Dead after taking all of their Longinus, claiming they have lost their value before retreating. In Volume 14, it is revealed that Indra is gathering forces to combat Shiva the God of Destruction, which is why he aligned himself with the Hero Faction and Hades.
Shiva, the Hindu God of Destruction, who is said to be one of the few beings on existence that can match the Trihexa(666) in power. Azazel speaks to him in Volume 19.[LN 19] He wishes to recruit Issei to battle against Indra.[LN 22]

text: Khaos Brigade[edit]

text: The Khaos Brigade (禍の団（カオス・ブリゲード）, Kaosu Burigēdo) was an organization led (as a Puppet King) by Ophis, the Dragon God, with the main purpose of removing Great Red, the most powerful Dragon in existence known as the True Dragon, out of the Dimensional Gap. It consists of a mix of beings from the fallen angels, humans, and angels.

text: Vali Team[edit]

text: The Vali Team (ヴァーリチーム, Vāri Chīmu) is a team of seven members of the Chaos Brigade. Their main goal is exploring, going on adventures, and finding strong opponents to battle. Ishibumi developed the team as a way to introduce some of his Norse mythology characters and that this team would have the most interaction with Issei among the Chaos Brigade's groups.[LN 4 afterword] Eventually, the Vali Team join the DxD team against the remnants of the Chaos Brigade.[LN 16]

text: Old Maou Faction[edit]

text: The Old Maou Faction (旧魔王派, KyūmaŌ-ha, lit. "Old Satan Faction") is an organization of the Chaos Brigade consisting of descendants of the original Maous. They are the only group of Devils who resist using the Evil Pieces system, as they believe them to be a disgrace to Devils because they reincarnate Humans and other races into Devils. They are also against the Devils' current system, and seek to change it by overthrowing the current Maous. Vali Lucifer is part of the Old Maou Faction before his defection and organization of the Vali Team. The remaining three leaders are eventually defeated, with the remaining members killed by Ajuka Beelzebub.

text: Hero Faction[edit]

text: The Hero Faction (英雄派, Eiyū-ha) is a faction of the Chaos Brigade led by Cao Cao, the descendant of the ambitious ruler of China during the Three Kingdoms era. The faction is allied with Hades, the God from the Realm of the Dead, and it is also the most dangerous faction of the Brigade due to its members being Sacred Gear, Holy/Demon Sword, and Longinus wielders. The Hero Faction was defeated in Volume 12 when Indra sends the majority of its main members, Cao Cao, Georg and Leonardo to the Realm of the Dead, taking all of their Longinus from them. Siegfried died in battle while Jeanne and Heracles are captured.

text: Qlippoth[edit]

text: Dragons[edit]

text: Dragons (ドラゴン, Doragon) make up some of the most powerful beings in High School DxD. Most of the dragons are neutral and do not ally with the three factions.[S2 ep 8] Besides Orphis there are the following dragons:

text: Ddraig[edit]

text: Albion[edit]

text: Great Red[edit]

text: Other dragons[edit]

text: Yōkai[edit]

text: Yōkai (妖怪) are group of supernatural monsters from Japanese folklore. There are many species of yōkai. Kunou and Yasaka are Nine-tailed Foxes (九尾の狐, Kyūbi no Gitsune), while Koneko and Kuroka are Nekomata (猫又, lit. "Forked Cats"), a sub-species of Bakeneko (化け猫, lit. "Monster Cats"). Other types of yōkai include Yuki-onna, Kappa, Karasu-Tengu, and Nue. The ones shown so far are led by Yasaka in Kyoto. For Devils to visit, permission has to be requested ahead and special "tickets" given, allowing access to the various shrines and temples without feeling fear from Holy elements or receiving damage from traversing Holy Ground.

text: Vampires[edit]

text: Vampires (吸血鬼, Kyūketsuki) are a race of supernatural creatures even more proud and aloof than Devils. While some Devils, particularly the Gremory clan, treat their slaves/servants like family or allow advancement in rank, while for a Vampire to be treated as high-class, they have to be born into a high-class Vampire family. Transformed vampires are despised and eternally low-class and none of the clans are considered to even be close to treating their slaves even remotely as family. Gasper is despised for being half-human, his out-of-control Sacred Gear, and apparently the "Darkness" Vampire powers he used to defeat Georg. Like the stories tell, Vampires are weak against sunlight, garlic and holy items. Although Gasper's clan, the Vladi, have a clan trait of being Daywalkers, meaning sunlight won't kill or hurt them any more than it does Devils. Vampires are mostly cut off from other groups by preference, and word is that fighting between clans broke out shortly after one clan got hold of a Longinus user.

text: Other characters[edit]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Theron Martin of Anime News Network praised the character development, in which Rias "gradually starts to be attracted to Issei for his unqualified admiration and devotion," and calls Asia Argento "a fairly typical helpless, innocent, kind-hearted moe type, one who becomes interesting in part because her transition from being a nun to being a devil is fraught with problems." He also said that Issei's "interactions with his perverted best friends [Matsuda and Motohama] are also occasionally good for laughs, as are his own reactions to situations and his amusing alarm clock."[18] Martin praised the English voice acting of Scott Freeman, Chloe Daniels and Felicia Angelle, but said that Teri Rogers made "Akeno sound cheerfully friendly without ever really infusing in the suggestive and sadistic undertones" and said that Jamie Marchi "often does not sound quite right as Rias even though she performs the role well."[18]

text: Davey C. Jones of ActiveAnime said that the characters "have a good range of different types, no one looks the same, and each has an individual personality and powers."[19] A reviewer for T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews said that "[TNK's] animation is generally doing those characters all kinds of favors" and although the reviewer said that the English voice actors are "a bit of an uneven bunch," the dialogue "keeps itself on a relatively informal level, with gratuitous usage of generally inoffensive sexual slang on the parts of Issei and his two friends."[20] Sheena McNeil of Sequential Tart not only liked the diversity of the characters, but also liked the designs and personalities in them. McNeil also praised the Japanese and English voice acting in the series as well.[21]


document_title: Gold standard

question_text: when did the us officially abandon the gold standard

question_tokens: when did the us officially abandon the gold standard

root

text: Gold standard

text: History

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tag: table

text: Origin

text: The gold specie standard arose from the widespread acceptance of gold as currency.[5] Various commodities have been used as money; typically, the one that loses the least value over time becomes the accepted form.[6] Chemically, gold is of all major metals the one most resistant to corrosion.[citation needed]

tag: p

text: The use of gold as money began thousands of years ago in Asia Minor.[7]

text: During the early and high Middle Ages, the Byzantine gold solidus, commonly known as the bezant, was used widely throughout Europe and the Mediterranean.  However, as the Byzantine Empire's economic influence declined, so too did the use of the bezant.[8]  In its place, European territories chose silver as their currency over gold, leading to the development of silver standards.[citation needed]

text: Silver pennies based on the Roman denarius became the staple coin of Mercia in Great Britain around the time of King Offa, circa 757–796 CE.[9] Similar coins, including Italian denari, French deniers, and Spanish dineros, circulated in Europe. Spanish explorers discovered silver deposits in Mexico in 1522 and at Potosí in Bolivia in 1545.[10] International trade came to depend on coins such as the Spanish dollar, the Maria Theresa thaler, and, later, the United States trade dollar.[citation needed]

text: In modern times, the British West Indies was one of the first regions to adopt a gold specie standard. Following Queen Anne's proclamation of 1704, the British West Indies gold standard was a de facto gold standard based on the Spanish gold doubloon. In 1717, Sir Isaac Newton, the master of the Royal Mint, established a new mint ratio between silver and gold that had the effect of driving silver out of circulation and putting Britain on a gold standard.[11][self-published source]

text: A formal gold specie standard was first established in 1821, when Britain adopted it following the introduction of the gold sovereign by the new Royal Mint at Tower Hill in 1816. The United Province of Canada in 1854, Newfoundland in 1865, and the United States and Germany (de jure) in 1873 adopted gold.  The United States used the eagle as its unit, Germany introduced the new gold mark, while Canada adopted a dual system based on both the American gold eagle and the British gold sovereign.[12]

text: Australia and New Zealand adopted the British gold standard, as did the British West Indies, while Newfoundland was the only British Empire territory to introduce its own gold coin.[13] Royal Mint branches were established in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth for the purpose of minting gold sovereigns from Australia's rich gold deposits.[citation needed]

text: The gold specie standard came to an end in the United Kingdom and the rest of the British Empire with the outbreak of World War I.[citation needed]

text: Silver

text: From 1750 to 1870, wars within Europe as well as an ongoing trade deficit with China (which sold to Europe but had little use for European goods) drained silver from the economies of Western Europe and the United States.  Coins were struck in smaller and smaller numbers, and there was a proliferation of bank and stock notes used as money.

text: United Kingdom

text: In the 1790s, the United Kingdom suffered a silver shortage. It ceased to mint larger silver coins and instead issued "token" silver coins and overstruck foreign coins.  With the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Bank of England began the massive recoinage programme that created standard gold sovereigns, circulating crowns, half-crowns and eventually copper farthings in 1821.  The recoinage of silver after a long drought produced a burst of coins. The United Kingdom struck nearly 40 million shillings between 1816 and 1820, 17 million half crowns and 1.3 million silver crowns.

text: The 1819 Act for the Resumption of Cash Payments set 1823 as the date for resumption of convertibility, which was reached by 1821. Throughout the 1820s, small notes were issued by regional banks. This was restricted in 1826, while the Bank of England was allowed to set up regional branches. In 1833 however, Bank of England notes were made legal tender and redemption by other banks was discouraged.  In 1844, the Bank Charter Act established that Bank of England notes were fully backed by gold and they became the legal standard.  According to the strict interpretation of the gold standard, this 1844 act marked the establishment of a full gold standard for British money.

text: United States

text: In the 1780s, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Morris and Alexander Hamilton recommended to Congress the value of a decimal system. This system would also apply to monies in the United States. The question was what type of standard: gold, silver or both.[14] The United States adopted a silver standard based on the Spanish milled dollar in 1785.

text: International

text: From 1860 to 1871 various attempts to resurrect bi-metallic standards were made, including one based on the gold and silver franc; however, with the rapid influx of silver from new deposits, the expectation of scarce silver ended.

text: The interaction between central banking and currency basis formed the primary source of monetary instability during this period. The combination of a restricted supply of notes, a government monopoly on note issuance and indirectly, a central bank and a single unit of value produced economic stability. Deviation from these conditions produced monetary crises.

text: Devalued notes or leaving silver as a store of value caused economic problems. Governments, demanding specie as payment, could drain the money out of the economy. Economic development expanded need for credit. The need for a solid basis in monetary affairs produced a rapid acceptance of the gold standard in the period that followed.

text: Japan

text: Following Germany's decision after the 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War to extract reparations to facilitate a move to the gold standard, Japan gained the needed reserves after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. For Japan, moving to gold was considered vital for gaining access to Western capital markets.[15]

text: Bimetallic standard

text: US: Pre-Civil War

text: In 1792, Congress passed the Mint and Coinage Act. It authorized the federal government's use of the Bank of the United States to hold its reserves, as well as establish a fixed ratio of gold to the U.S. dollar. Gold and silver coins were legal tender, as was the Spanish real. In 1792 the market price of gold was about 15 times that of silver.[14] Silver coins left circulation, exported to pay for the debts taken on to finance the American Revolutionary War. In 1806 President Jefferson suspended the minting of silver coins. This resulted in a derivative silver standard, since the Bank of the United States was not required to fully back its currency with reserves. This began a long series of attempts by the United States to create a bi-metallic standard.

text: The intention was to use gold for large denominations, and silver for smaller denominations.  A problem with bimetallic standards was that the metals' absolute and relative market prices changed. The mint ratio (the rate at which the mint was obligated to pay/receive for gold relative to silver) remained fixed at 15 ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold, whereas the market rate fluctuated from 15.5 to 1 to 16 to 1. With the Coinage Act of 1834, Congress passed an act that changed the mint ratio to approximately 16 to 1. Gold discoveries in California in 1848 and later in Australia lowered the gold price relative to silver; this drove silver money from circulation because it was worth more in the market than as money.[16] Passage of the Independent Treasury Act of 1848 placed the U.S. on a strict hard-money standard. Doing business with the American government required gold or silver coins.

text: Government accounts were legally separated from the banking system. However, the mint ratio (the fixed exchange rate between gold and silver at the mint) continued to overvalue gold. In 1853, the US reduced the silver weight of coins to keep them in circulation and in 1857 removed legal tender status from foreign coinage. In 1857 the final crisis of the free banking era began as American banks suspended payment in silver, with ripples through the developing international financial system. Due to the inflationary finance measures undertaken to help pay for the US Civil War, the government found it difficult to pay its obligations in gold or silver and suspended  payments of obligations not legally specified in specie (gold bonds); this led banks to suspend the conversion of bank liabilities (bank notes and deposits) into specie. In 1862 paper money was made legal tender. It was a fiat money (not convertible on demand at a fixed rate into specie). These notes came to be called "greenbacks".[16]

text: US: Post-Civil War

text: After the Civil War, Congress wanted to reestablish the metallic standard at pre-war rates. The market price of gold in greenbacks was above the pre-War fixed price ($20.67 per ounce of gold) requiring deflation to achieve the pre-War price. This was accomplished by growing the stock of money less rapidly than real output. By 1879 the market price matched the mint price of gold. The coinage act of 1873 (also known as the Crime of ‘73) demonetized silver. This act removed the 412.5 grain silver dollar from circulation. Subsequently silver was only used in coins worth less than $1 (fractional currency). With the resumption of convertibility on June 30, 1879 the government again paid its debts in gold, accepted greenbacks for customs and redeemed greenbacks on demand in gold. Greenbacks were therefore perfect substitutes for gold coins. During the latter part of the nineteenth century the use of silver and a return to the bimetallic standard were recurrent political issues, raised especially by William Jennings Bryan, the People's Party and the  Free Silver movement. In 1900 the gold dollar was declared the standard unit of account and a gold reserve for government issued paper notes was established. Greenbacks, silver certificates, and silver dollars continued to be legal tender, all redeemable in gold.[16]

text: Fluctuations in the US gold stock, 1862–1877

text:
US gold stock

1862
59 tons

1866
81 tons

1875
50 tons

1878
78 tons

text: The US had a gold stock of 1.9 million ounces (59 t) in 1862. Stocks rose to 2.6 million ounces (81 t) in 1866, declined in 1875 to 1.6 million ounces (50 t) and rose to 2.5 million ounces (78 t) in 1878. Net exports did not mirror that pattern. In the decade before the Civil War net exports were roughly constant; postwar they varied erratically around pre-war levels, but fell significantly in 1877 and became negative in 1878 and 1879. The net import of gold meant that the foreign demand for American currency to purchase goods, services, and investments exceeded the corresponding American demands for foreign currencies. In the final years of the greenback period (1862–1879), gold production increased while gold exports decreased.  The decrease in gold exports was considered by some to be a result of changing monetary conditions. The demands for gold during this period were as a speculative vehicle, and for its primary use in the foreign exchange markets financing international trade. The major effect of the increase in gold demand by the public and Treasury was to reduce exports of gold and increase the Greenback price of gold relative to purchasing power.[17]

text: Gold exchange standard

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Towards the end of the 19th century, some silver standard countries began to peg their silver coin units to the gold standards of the United Kingdom or the United States. In 1898, British India pegged the silver rupee to the pound sterling at a fixed rate of 1s 4d, while in 1906, the Straits Settlements adopted a gold exchange standard against sterling, fixing the silver Straits dollar at 2s 4d.

text: Around the start of the 20th century, the Philippines pegged the silver peso/dollar to the U.S. dollar at 50 cents. This move was assisted by the passage of the Philippines Coinage Act by the United States Congress on March 3, 1903.[18] Around the same time Mexico and Japan pegged their currencies to the dollar. When Siam adopted a gold exchange standard in 1908, only China and Hong Kong remained on the silver standard.

text: When adopting the gold standard, many European nations changed the name of their currency, for instance from Daler (Sweden and Denmark) or Gulden (Austria-Hungary) to Crown, since the former names were traditionally associated with silver coins and the latter with gold coins.

text: Impact of World War I

text: Governments with insufficient tax revenue suspended convertibility repeatedly in the 19th century. The real test, however, came in the form of World War I, a test which "it failed utterly" according to economist Richard Lipsey.[5]

text: By the end of 1913, the classical gold standard was at its peak but World War I caused many countries to suspend or abandon it.[19] According to Lawrence Officer the main cause of the gold standard’s failure to resume its previous position after World War I was “the Bank of England's precarious liquidity position and the gold-exchange standard.” A run on sterling caused Britain to impose exchange controls that fatally weakened the standard; convertibility was not legally suspended, but gold prices no longer played the role that they did before.[20] In financing the war and abandoning gold, many of the belligerents suffered drastic inflations. Price levels doubled in the US and Britain, tripled in France and quadrupled in Italy. Exchange rates changed less, even though European inflations were more severe than America’s. This meant that the costs of American goods decreased relative to those in Europe. Between August 1914 and spring of 1915, the dollar value of US exports tripled and its trade surplus exceeded $1 billion for the first time.[21]

text: Ultimately, the system could not deal quickly enough with the large balance of payments deficits and surpluses; this was previously attributed to downward wage rigidity brought about by the advent of unionized labor, but is now considered as an inherent fault of the system that arose under the pressures of war and rapid technological change. In any case, prices had not reached equilibrium by the time of the Great Depression, which served to kill off the system completely.[5]

text: For example, Germany had gone off the gold standard in 1914, and could not effectively return to it because War reparations had cost it much of its gold reserves. During the Occupation of the Ruhr the German central bank (Reichsbank) issued enormous sums of non-convertible marks to support workers who were on strike against the French occupation and to buy foreign currency for reparations; this led to the German hyperinflation of the early 1920s and the decimation of the German middle class.

text: The US did not suspend the gold standard during the war.  The newly created Federal Reserve intervened in currency markets and sold bonds to “sterilize”[vague] some of the gold imports that would have otherwise increased the stock of money.[citation needed] By 1927 many countries had returned to the gold standard.[16] As a result of World War I the United States, which had been a net debtor country, had become a net creditor by 1919.[22]

text: Abandonment of the gold standard

text: The gold specie standard ended in the United Kingdom and the rest of the British Empire at the outbreak of World War I, when Treasury notes replaced the circulation of gold sovereigns and gold half sovereigns.  Legally, the gold specie standard was not repealed. The end of the gold standard was successfully effected by the Bank of England through appeals to patriotism urging citizens not to redeem paper money for gold specie. It was only in 1925, when Britain returned to the gold standard in conjunction with Australia and South Africa that the gold specie standard was officially ended.

text: The British Gold Standard Act 1925 both introduced the gold bullion standard and simultaneously repealed the gold specie standard. The new standard ended the circulation of gold specie coins. Instead, the law compelled the authorities to sell gold bullion on demand at a fixed price, but "only in the form of bars containing approximately four hundred ounces troy [12 kg] of fine gold".[23][24] John Maynard Keynes, citing deflationary dangers, argued against resumption of the gold standard.[25] By fixing the price at the pre-war rate of $4.86,[clarification needed] Churchill is argued to have made an error that led to depression, unemployment and the 1926 general strike. The decision was described by Andrew Turnbull as a "historic mistake".[26]

text: Many other countries followed Britain in returning to the gold standard, this was followed by a period of relative stability but also deflation.[27] This state of affairs lasted until the Great Depression (1929–1939) forced countries off the gold standard. In September 19, 1931, speculative attacks on the pound forced Britain to abandon the gold standard. Loans from American and French Central Banks of £50,000,000 were insufficient and exhausted in a matter of weeks, due to large gold outflows across the Atlantic.[28][29][30] The British benefited from this departure. They could now use monetary policy to stimulate the economy. Australia and New Zealand had already left the standard and Canada quickly followed suit.

text: The interwar partially backed gold standard was inherently unstable, because of the conflict between the expansion of liabilities to foreign central banks and the resulting deterioration in the Bank of England's reserve ratio. France was then attempting to make Paris a world class financial center, and it received large gold flows as well.[31]

text: In May 1931 a run on Austria's largest commercial bank caused it to fail. The run spread to Germany, where the central bank also collapsed. International financial assistance was too late and in July 1931 Germany adopted exchange controls, followed by Austria in October. The Austrian and German experiences, as well as British budgetary and political difficulties, were among the factors that destroyed confidence in sterling, which occurred in mid-July 1931. Runs ensued and the Bank of England lost much of its reserves.

text: Depression and World War II

text: Great Depression

text: Some economic historians, such as Barry Eichengreen, blame the gold standard of the 1920s for prolonging the economic depression which started in 1929 and lasted for about a decade.[33] In the United States, adherence to the gold standard prevented the Federal Reserve from expanding the money supply to stimulate the economy, fund insolvent banks and fund government deficits that could "prime the pump" for an expansion. Once off the gold standard, it became free to engage in such money creation. The gold standard limited the flexibility of the central banks' monetary policy by limiting their ability to expand the money supply. In the US, the central bank was required by the Federal Reserve Act (1913) to have gold backing 40% of its demand notes.[34] Others including former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Nobel Prize-winner Milton Friedman place the blame for the severity and length of the Great Depression at the feet of the Federal Reserve, mostly due to the deliberate tightening of monetary policy even after the gold standard.[35] They blamed the US major economic contraction in 1937 on tightening of monetary policy resulting in higher cost of capital, weaker securities markets, reduced net government contribution to income, the undistributed profits tax and higher labor costs.[36] The money supply peaked in March 1937, with a trough in May 1938.[37]

text: Higher interest rates intensified the deflationary pressure on the dollar and reduced investment in U.S. banks.  Commercial banks converted Federal Reserve Notes to gold in 1931, reducing its gold reserves and forcing a corresponding reduction in the amount of currency in circulation. This speculative attack created a panic in the U.S. banking system.  Fearing imminent devaluation many depositors withdrew funds from U.S. banks.[38] As bank runs grew, a reverse multiplier effect caused a contraction in the money supply.[39] Additionally the New York Fed had loaned over $150 million in gold (over 240 tons) to European Central Banks. This transfer contracted the US money supply. The foreign loans became questionable once Britain, Germany, Austria and other European countries went off the gold standard in 1931 and weakened confidence in the dollar.[40]

text: The forced contraction of the money supply resulted in deflation. Even as nominal interest rates dropped, inflation-adjusted real interest rates remained high, rewarding those who held onto money instead of spending it, further slowing the economy.[41] Recovery in the United States was slower than in Britain, in part due to Congressional reluctance to abandon the gold standard and float the U.S. currency as Britain had done.[42]

text: In the early 1930s, the Federal Reserve defended the dollar by raising interest rates, trying to increase the demand for dollars. This helped attract international investors who bought foreign assets with gold.[38]

text: Congress passed the Gold Reserve Act on 30 January 1934; the measure nationalized all gold by ordering Federal Reserve banks to turn over their supply to the U.S. Treasury. In return the banks received gold certificates to be used as reserves against deposits and Federal Reserve notes. The act also authorized the president to devalue the gold dollar. Under this authority the president, on 31 January 1934, changed the value of the dollar from $20.67 to the troy ounce to $35 to the troy ounce, a devaluation of over 40%.

text: Other factors in the prolongation of the Great Depression include trade wars and the reduction in international trade caused by barriers such as Smoot–Hawley Tariff in the US and the Imperial Preference policies of Great Britain,[43] the failure of central banks to act responsibly,[44] government policies designed to prevent wages from falling, such as the Davis–Bacon Act of 1931, during the deflationary period resulting in production costs dropping slower than sales prices, thereby injuring business profits[45] and increases in taxes to reduce budget deficits and to support new programs such as Social Security. The US top marginal income tax rate went from 25% to 63% in 1932 and to 79% in 1936,[46] while the bottom rate increased over tenfold, from .375% in 1929 to 4% in 1932.[47] The concurrent massive drought resulted in the US Dust Bowl.

text: The Austrian School asserted that the Great Depression was the result of a credit bust.[48] Alan Greenspan wrote that the bank failures of the 1930s were sparked by Great Britain dropping the gold standard in 1931. This act "tore asunder" any remaining confidence in the banking system.[49] Financial historian  Niall Ferguson wrote that what made the Great Depression truly 'great' was the European banking crisis of 1931.[50] According to Fed Chairman Marriner Eccles, the root cause was the concentration of wealth resulting in a stagnating or decreasing standard of living for the poor and middle class. These classes went into debt, producing the credit explosion of the 1920s. Eventually the debt load grew too heavy, resulting in the massive defaults and financial panics of the 1930s.[51]

text: World War II

text: Under the Bretton Woods international monetary agreement of 1944, the gold standard was kept without domestic convertibility. The role of gold was severely constrained, as other countries’ currencies were fixed in terms of the dollar. Many countries kept reserves in gold and settled accounts in gold. Still they preferred to settle balances with other currencies, with the American dollar becoming the favorite. The International Monetary Fund was established to help with the exchange process and assist nations in maintaining fixed rates. Within Bretton Woods adjustment was cushioned through credits that helped countries avoid deflation. Under the old standard, a country with an overvalued currency would lose gold and experience deflation until the currency was again valued correctly. Most countries defined their currencies in terms of dollars, but some countries imposed trading restrictions to protect reserves and exchange rates. Therefore, most countries' currencies were still basically inconvertible. In the late 1950s, the exchange restrictions were dropped and gold became an important element in international financial settlements.[16]

text: Bretton Woods

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: After the Second World War, a system similar to a gold standard and sometimes described as a "gold exchange standard" was established by the Bretton Woods Agreements. Under this system, many countries fixed their exchange rates relative to the U.S. dollar and central banks could exchange dollar holdings into gold at the official exchange rate of $35 per ounce; this option was not available to firms or individuals. All currencies pegged to the dollar thereby had a fixed value in terms of gold.[5]

text: Starting in the 1959–1969 administration of President Charles de Gaulle and continuing until 1970, France reduced its dollar reserves, exchanging them for gold at the official exchange rate, reducing US economic influence. This, along with the fiscal strain of federal expenditures for the Vietnam War and persistent balance of payments deficits, led U.S. President Richard Nixon to end international convertibility of the U.S. dollar to gold on August 15, 1971 (the "Nixon Shock").

text: This was meant to be a temporary measure, with the gold price of the dollar and the official rate of exchanges remaining constant. Revaluing currencies was the main purpose of this plan. No official revaluation or redemption occurred. The dollar subsequently floated. In December 1971, the "Smithsonian Agreement" was reached. In this agreement, the dollar was devalued from $35 per troy ounce of gold to $38. Other countries' currencies appreciated. However, gold convertibility did not resume. In October 1973, the price was raised to $42.22. Once again, the devaluation was insufficient. Within two weeks of the second devaluation the dollar was left to float. The $42.22 par value was made official in September 1973, long after it had been abandoned in practice. In October 1976, the government officially changed the definition of the dollar; references to gold were removed from statutes. From this point, the international monetary system was made of pure fiat money.

text: Production of gold

text: An estimated total of 174,100 tonnes of gold have been mined in human history, according to GFMS as of 2012. This is roughly equivalent to 5.6 billion troy ounces or, in terms of volume, about 9,261 cubic metres (327,000 cu ft), or a cube 21 metres (69 ft) on a side. There are varying estimates of the total volume of gold mined. One reason for the variance is that gold has been mined for thousands of years. Another reason is that some nations are not particularly open about how much gold is being mined. In addition, it is difficult to account for the gold output in illegal mining activities.[52]

text: World production for 2011 was circa 2,700 tonnes. Since the 1950s, annual gold output growth has approximately kept pace with world population growth (i.e. a doubling in this period)[53] although it has lagged behind world economic growth (approximately 8-fold increase since the 1950s[54], and 4x since 1980[55]).

text: Theory

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text: Commodity money is inconvenient to store and transport in large amounts. Furthermore, it does not allow a government to manipulate the flow of commerce with the same ease that a fiat currency does. As such, commodity money gave way to representative money and gold and other specie were retained as its backing.

text: Gold was a preferred form of money due to its rarity, durability, divisibility, fungibility and ease of identification,[56] often in conjunction with silver. Silver was typically the main circulating medium, with gold as the monetary reserve. Commodity money was anonymous, as identifying marks can be removed. Commodity money retains its value despite what may happen to the monetary authority. After the fall of South Vietnam, many refugees carried their wealth to the West in gold after the national currency became worthless.[citation needed]

text: Under commodity standards currency itself has no intrinsic value, but is accepted by traders because it can be redeemed any time for the equivalent specie. A US silver certificate, for example, could be redeemed for an actual piece of silver.

text: Representative money and the gold standard protect citizens from hyperinflation and other abuses of monetary policy, as were seen in some countries during the Great Depression. Commodity money conversely led to deflation and bank runs.

text: Countries that left the gold standard earlier than other countries recovered from the Great Depression sooner. For example, Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries, which left the gold standard in 1931, recovered much earlier than France and Belgium, which remained on gold much longer. Countries such as China, which had a silver standard, almost entirely avoided the depression (due to the fact it was then barely integrated into the global economy). The connection between leaving the gold standard and the severity and duration of the depression was consistent for dozens of countries, including developing countries. This may explain why the experience and length of the depression differed between national economies.[57]

text: Variations

text: A full or 100%-reserve gold standard exists when the monetary authority holds sufficient gold to convert all the circulating representative money into gold at the promised exchange rate. It is sometimes referred to as the gold specie standard to more easily distinguish it. Opponents of a full standard consider it difficult to implement, saying that the quantity of gold in the world is too small to sustain worldwide economic activity at or near current gold prices; implementation would entail a many-fold increase in the price of gold.[citation needed] Gold standard proponents have said, "Once a money is established, any stock of money becomes compatible with any amount of employment and real income."[58] While prices would necessarily adjust to the supply of gold, the process may involve considerable economic disruption, as was experienced during earlier attempts to maintain gold standards.[59]

text: In an international gold-standard system (which is necessarily based on an internal gold standard in the countries concerned),[60] gold or a currency that is convertible into gold at a fixed price is used to make international payments. Under such a system, when exchange rates rise above or fall below the fixed mint rate by more than the cost of shipping gold, inflows or outflows occur until rates return to the official level. International gold standards often limit which entities have the right to redeem currency for gold.

text: Advantages

text:
Long-term price stability has been described as one of the virtues of the gold standard.[61] The gold standard makes it difficult for governments to inflate prices through expanding the money supply. Under the gold standard, significant inflation is rare, and hyperinflation is essentially impossible because the money supply can only grow at the rate that the gold supply increases. High inflation under a gold standard is seen only when warfare destroys a large part of an economy, reducing the production of goods, or when a major new gold source becomes available.[62] In the U.S., inflation occurred during the Civil War, which destroyed the economy of the South.[63] Inflation also followed the California Gold Rush that made large amounts of gold available for minting.[64] Historical data shows that the magnitude of short run swings in prices were far higher under the gold standard.[65][61]
The gold standard provides fixed international exchange rates between participating countries and thus reduces uncertainty in international trade. Historically, imbalances between price levels were offset by a balance-of-payment adjustment mechanism called the "price–specie flow mechanism".[62] Gold used to pay for imports reduces the money supply of importing nations, causing deflation, which makes them more competitive, while the importation of gold by net exporters serves to increase their money supply, causing inflation, making them less competitive.[66]
A gold standard does not allow some types of financial repression.[67] Financial repression acts as a mechanism to transfer wealth from creditors to debtors, particularly the governments that practice it. Financial repression is most successful in reducing debt when accompanied by inflation and can be considered a form of taxation.[68][69] In 1966 Alan Greenspan wrote "Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard."[70]

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text: Disadvantages

text:
The unequal distribution of gold deposits makes the gold standard more advantageous for those countries that produce gold.[71] In 2010 the largest producers of gold, in order, were China, Australia, U.S., South Africa and Russia.[72] The country with the largest unmined gold deposits is Australia.[73]
Some economists believe that the gold standard acts as a limit on economic growth. "As an economy's productive capacity grows, then so should its money supply. Because a gold standard requires that money be backed in the metal, then the scarcity of the metal constrains the ability of the economy to produce more capital and grow."[74]
Mainstream economists believe that economic recessions can be largely mitigated by increasing the money supply during economic downturns.[75] A gold standard means that the money supply would be determined by the gold supply and hence monetary policy could no longer be used to stabilize the economy.[76] The gold standard is often blamed for prolonging the Great Depression, as under the gold standard, central banks could not expand credit at a fast enough rate to offset deflationary forces.[77]
Although the gold standard brings long-run price stability, it is historically associated with high short-run price volatility.[61][78] It has been argued by Schwartz, among others, that instability in short-term price levels can lead to financial instability as lenders and borrowers become uncertain about the value of debt.[78]
Deflation punishes debtors.[79][80] Real debt burdens therefore rise, causing borrowers to cut spending to service their debts or to default. Lenders become wealthier, but may choose to save some of the additional wealth, reducing GDP.[81]
The money supply would essentially be determined by the rate of gold production. When gold stocks increase more rapidly than the economy, there is inflation and the reverse is also true.[61][82] The consensus view is that the gold standard contributed to the severity and length of the Great Depression.[83][84]
Hamilton contended that the gold standard is susceptible to speculative attacks when a government's financial position appears weak. Conversely, this threat discourages governments from engaging in risky policy (see moral hazard). For example, the U.S. was forced to contract the money supply and raise interest rates in September 1931 to defend the dollar after speculators forced the UK off the gold standard.[84][85][86][87]
Devaluing a currency under a gold standard would generally produce sharper changes than the smooth declines seen in fiat currencies, depending on the method of devaluation.[88]
Most economists favor a low, positive rate of inflation of around 2%. This reflects fear of deflationary shocks and the belief that active monetary policy can dampen fluctuations in output and unemployment. Inflation gives them room to tighten policy without inducing deflation.[89]
A gold standard provides practical constraints against the measures that central banks might otherwise use to respond to economic crises.[90] Creation of new money reduces interest rates and thereby increases demand for new lower cost debt, raising the demand for money.[91]

text: Advocates

text: A return to the gold standard was considered by the US Gold Commission back in 1982, but found only minority support.[92] In 2001 Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad proposed a new currency that would be used initially for international trade among Muslim nations, using the Islamic gold dinar, defined as 4.25 grams of pure (24-carat) gold. Mahathir claimed it would be a stable unit of account and a political symbol of unity between Islamic nations.  This would purportedly reduce dependence on the US dollar and establish a non-debt-backed currency in accord with Sharia law that prohibited the charging of interest.[93] As of  2013[update] the global monetary system continued to rely on the US dollar as the main reserve currency.[94]

text: Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan acknowledged he was one of "a small minority" within the central bank that had some positive view on the gold standard.[95] In a 1966 essay he contributed to a book by Ayn Rand, titled "Gold and Economic Freedom", Greenspan argued the case for returning to a 'pure' gold standard; in that essay he described supporters of fiat currencies as "welfare statists" intending to use monetary policy to finance deficit spending.[96] More recently he claimed that by focusing on targeting inflation "central bankers have behaved as though we were on the gold standard", rendering a return to the standard unnecessary.[97]

text: Similarly, economists like Robert Barro argued that whilst some form of "monetary constitution"  is essential for stable, depoliticized monetary policy, the form this constitution takes—for example, a gold standard, some other commodity-based standard, or a fiat currency with fixed rules for determining the quantity of money—is considerably less important.[98]

text: The gold standard is supported by many followers of the Austrian School of Economics, free-market libertarians and some supply-siders.[99]

text: US politics

text: In the United States, strict constitutionalists object to the government issuing fiat currency through central banks. Some gold-standard advocates also call for a mandated end to fractional-reserve banking. Many similar alternatives have been suggested, including energy-based currencies, collections of currencies or commodities, with gold as one component.

text: Former congressman Ron Paul is a long-term, high-profile advocate of a gold standard, but has also expressed support for using a standard based on a basket of commodities that better reflects the state of the economy.[100]

text: In 2011 the Utah legislature passed a bill to accept federally issued gold and silver coins as legal tender to pay taxes.[101] As federally issued currency, the coins were already legal tender for taxes, although the market price of their metal content currently exceeds their monetary value. Similar legislation is under consideration in other US states.[102] The bill was initiated by newly elected Republican Party legislators associated with the Tea Party movement and was driven by anxiety over the policies of President Barack Obama.[103]

text: In 2013, the Arizona Legislature passed SB 1439, which would have made gold and silver coin a legal tender in payment of debt, but the bill was vetoed by the Governor.[104]

text: In 2015, some candidates for the 2016 presidential election advocated for a gold standard, based on concern that the Federal Reserve’s attempts to increase economic growth may create inflation. Economic historians did not agree with candidate's assertions that the gold standard would benefit the US economy.[105]

text: Critics

text:
In 2012 a poll of 40 U.S. economists in the IGM Economic Experts Panel found that none of them agreed with a claim that a return to the gold standard would result in "price-stability and employment outcomes [that] would be better for the average American." The panel of polled economists included past Nobel Prize winners, former economic advisers to both Republican and Democratic presidents, and senior faculty from Harvard, Chicago, Stanford, MIT, and other well-known research universities. (The specific question posed to the economists was: "If the US replaced its discretionary monetary policy regime with a gold standard, defining a 'dollar' as a specific number of ounces of gold, the price-stability and employment outcomes would be better for the average American.")
[3]

text: The economist Allan H. Meltzer of Carnegie Mellon University presented arguments against Ron Paul's advocacy of the gold standard since the 1970s.  He sometimes summarizes his opposition by stating simply, "[W]e don’t have the gold standard. It’s not because we don’t know about the gold standard, it’s because we do."[106]


document_title: South African Qualifications Authority

question_text: what nqf level is a diploma in south africa

text: South African Qualifications Authority

text: The National Qualifications Framework[edit]

text: The NQF is a framework, i.e. it sets the boundaries, principle and guidelines, which provide a vision, a philosophical base and an organisational structure, for the construction  of a qualifications system. Detailed development and implementation is carried out within these boundaries. All education and training in South Africa fits within this framework.

text: It is national because it is a national resource, representing a national effort at integrating education and training into unified structure of recognised qualifications. It is framework of qualifications i.e. records of learner achievements.

text: The NQF is a set of principles and guidelines by which records of learner achievement are registered to enable national recognition of acquired skills and knowledge, thereby ensuring an integrated system that encourages lifelong learning.

text: The NQF consist of 10 levels divided into three band; Levels 1 to 4 equate to high school grades 9 to 12 or vocational training, 5 to 7 are college diplomas and technical qualifications, 7 to 10 are university degrees.[4]

text:
Levels

Designation

1

Grade 9

2

Grade 10 and National (vocational) Certificates level 2

3

Grade 11 and National (vocational) Certificates level 3

4

Grade 12 (National Senior Certificate) and National (vocational) Cert. level 4

5

Higher Certificates and Advanced National (vocational) Cert.

6

National Diploma and Advanced certificates

7

Bachelor's degree,  Advanced Diplomas, Post Graduate Certificate and B-tech

8

Honours degree, Post Graduate diploma and Professional Qualifications

9

Master's degree

10

Doctor's degree

text: History[edit]

text: In October 1995, the South African Qualifications Authority Act (No. 58 of 1995) was promulgated to establish the authority, whose main task was to establish the National Qualifications Framework (NQF).  The authority started operations in May 1996.

text: By 2001 the NQF was under review, and after that the 1995 SAQA law was replaced by the  National Qualifications Framework Act (No. 67 of 2008).  The authority remained in place and so did the updated NQF.

text: Functions[edit]

text: The functions of SAQA are essentially twofold :

text:
to oversee the development of the NQF by formulating and publishing policies and criteria for registration of bodies responsible for establishing education and training standards or qualifications and for accreditation of bodies responsible for monitoring and auditing achievements in terms of such standards and qualifications
to oversee the implementation of the NQF by ensuring the registration, accreditation and assignment of functions to bodies referred to above, as well as the registration of national standards and qualifications on the framework. It must also take steps to ensure that provisions for  accreditations are complied with and where appropriate, that registered standards and qualifications are internationally comparable.

text: Activities[edit]

text: In order to realise this objective, SAQA has established and  maintains the following:

text:
a system for setting  nationally recognised and internationally comparable education and training standards and qualifications from NQF Level 1 (Grade 9 or Adult Basic Education and Training Level 4 - the exit point from General Education and Training) to NQF Level 8 (post-graduate qualifications)
a national quality assurance system to ensure that education and training is delivered to the set standards
an electronic management information system which records all relevant information on the achievements of South African learners (the National Learners’ Records Database).

text: SAQA also has the task of evaluating foreign educational qualifications  to determine their South African equivalence. People with foreign qualifications who wish to attend South African education institutions or who wish to enter the South African labour market apply to SAQA to have their qualifications evaluated.

text: SAQA’s contribution ensures that South Africans have access to quality education and skills development to improve their lives.