base-line-date: 1. The date on which one real monetary unit equals one nominal monetary unit (typically the government-issued fiat monetary unit.) Inflation (or deflation) is then tracked from this date, using the inflation index, to give us an inflationary adjustment factor. 2. Just as physicists can find no center of the universe, there is no specific date upon which a real monetary unit must equal the nominal monetary unit. Therefore, the issuer of a real financial instrument, such as the TIPS, typically selects the date the instrument is issued as the base-line-date. As an example, each of the 17 TIPS series (or due dates) has a different base-line-date, when the accrued principal value equals the par value (i.e. no inflationary adjustment has taken place yet.) This means that every TIPS series has a different inflationary adjustment factor, since it has by definition a different real monetary unit. (The U.S. Treasury does not reference a real monetary unit per se; yet, it is implied by the mathematical formula for the indexed ratio. The indexed ratio is simply an inflationary adjustment factor.) 3. One of the benefits, of the master real currency (MR$) unit, is that every real financial instrument with a different base-line-date can then be traded in the MR$ unit; since all of the real monetary units with different inflationary adjustment factors can be indexed to the base-line-date of the MR$. 4. The base-line-date of the Millennium Dollar is January 1st, 2000