some of it (particularly on the role of the 3 separate currency layers) has gone a bit over my head. So before I part with my $1,500 (or whatever) bid, please can you set out in very straightforward layman's terms exactly what the bid will be getting me?

There hasn't been a system like VIVA in existence before now, so the confusion is understandable.

If you refer back to the top of the post there is a description of each coin, but you're correct, there isn't much in the way of explaining what a Crown is/does.

So let me explain it in laymans terms.
VIVA has a dynamic economic model which responds to the needs of all users in the system and is designed to provide a regular reliable income for each participant.

The only way that VIVA coins can be minted is under the authority of a Treasury Right, this prevents a race to ASIC since the only thing you require in order to mint coin is this particular right and some business use.

A VIVA Crown is the sole source of this Treasury Right.
It is a direct claim to a share of the entire VIVA economy.

Let's say you won this batch which is 1/10th of all the Treasury Rights in the system, during round 1.
Crown Holders vote on the price they want to see for each coin that is minted, this is called a target.
I'm pulling a number out of thin air here and saying $1.25 per VIVA is the decided upon amount.

What you are buying here is the right to set that price, but there is more...

Crown Holders also vote on the marketcap, again this is a target number.
The marketcap is the total value of all VIVA coins in circulation for the next 7 days.
Collectively the Crown Holders decide that the week 1 marketcap will be $12,500 USD.
As a Crown Holder you get a say in that figure.
What you are buying here is the right to also set that figure, but there is more...

Coins do not come out of thin air. They must be minted, by a mint.
Mints cannot mint coin without authorization. This authorization is called a Treasury Right.
Someone who wants to run a mint could lease your Treasury Right from you as part of a business arrangement, or you could setup your own mint.
Eitherway as the winner of this auction you will have the right to mint 10% of all VIVA that will enter into circulation during the first phase of deployment.

If the marketcap for week 1 is targeted at $12,500 USD then $25,000 for week 2, then $37,500 for week 3 and the price target is set to $1.25 all three weeks....

Then 100 Crowns will give you the right to mint $1,250 USD worth of VIVA each week.

It is generally understood that Crown Holders will seek an increase to price or marketcap each week.

When you do this, you can mint your entire right as VIVA or vUSD or vX anything or any mix of it.
Whatever you mint, you can sell in order to make money, or hold onto incase the price increases, or invest it into the liquidity pool to turn it into a permanent income source.

We have an exchange where VIVA will trade as a first class citizen against many other currencies and we have a fiat gateway to get people into and out of the coin. So now it's a matter of distributing the first round of crowns and getting the economic engine primed.

So in a nutshell, what you are bidding on is a license to print money.

BTW - Assume it's fine for us to vote multiple times if outbid?

Yes but keep in mind I don't get reply notices if you just modify your bid, so make sure to post it as a new bid.

So before I part with my $1,500 (or whatever) bid...

Assuming that's your bid, Hive account@matrioshka is the current high bidder at $1500 ;)

Excellent questions and thanks for asking!