The Currency in your World

[Helleaven]

What kind of currencies are you using in your worlds?

What is the name of your chief monetary unit?

I am going to use the classical bronze, silver and gold system. 40 bronze equals 1 silver and 100 silver equals 1 gold. Then I thought about the name for this currencies. I thought that I was going to use some words from the language I'm creating. Then I've came up with another idea.

What do you feel about this naming below:

40 bronze leaf = 1 silver branch

100 silver branch = 1 golden tree

It makes sense to me and I actually like the metaphor in the naming. What do you think?

[Devor]

In my work in progress, I'll figure out when it becomes necessary.

In another story, I just used silver coins, where a "penny" was the price of a good sheep and something like 200 pennies were worth a bigger silver coin. But that's what was accurate for the timeperiod my setting was placed in.

I'm under the impression that Copper/Bronze didn't see much use in the medieval world, at least in places which had access to gold and silver. IRL, the more metals you use for money, the faster your money inflates. You would want the rate of gold/silver/bronze mining to match fairly closely to the population trends.

[JonSnow]

I also use copper/silver/gold coin system. I don't go into specifics as to how much certain items cost, or how many coppers make a silver, etc. But it is made known the order of value is copper-> silver-> gold. It is a good, reliable system

With currency, as well as character names and cities, I'm always worried that I am using a name that has been used before, though I don't think we can help it at this point, given how much fantasy is out there. I actually had the name "Rand" as one of my main characters before I read The Wheel of Time. Obviously I had to change it. But I have been gun-shy ever since.

Anyway, the name of my world is Irgoth, so in the interest of simplicity, I use "goth" coins as the currency. Gothcoppers, Gothsilvers, Gothgolds.

[Telcontar]

Helleaven: precious metals are tried and true, of course, and your names are fine - IF there is a reason for them. Why are they called leaf, branch, and tree? Is this imagery important to the history, mythology, or religion of some powerful society?

Furthermore, remember that most nations had their own currency, and while there were often shared elements - the use of gold and silver being a famous example - they differed in size, commonality, purity, name, conversion rates, etc.

[Forsta-Phoenix]

I remember reading somewhere, and it is probably false, that the lowest denomination of Roman currency was usually enough to buy a meal. Regardless of how truthful that bit of information is most currencies have a lowest "useful" denomination, i.e. a base to build upon, if you're going with trees as the naming convention then maybe bronze coins could be called "roots", silver "branches" and gold "leaves" or "flowers" (seeing as how gold is often the showiest of the rare metals). Not trying to tell you what to call things in your world or anything, just the first thing that popped into my head when I read your post!

[Queshire]

I haven't given this much thought until reading this thread actually, but here's what I have so far;

-Most countries / cultures have their own currency with varying names and values. These common currencies are used by the citizens for day to day stuff, just like in real life.

-There's also a standardized currency often used in international matters. People like Nobles, Merchants, or Adventurers that don't want to rely on potentially fluctuating currnecy use it. This currency is refered to as Shards. They are litterally shards of various magical materials. How much an indivdual shard is worth depends on the material and how much it weighs. The value of these shards come from their rarity and scarcity. Shards have to either be scavenged from magitech wonders left over from the Age of Legends or mined from naturally magically dense areas. Both of which are rather dangerous jobs. While these materials can be used in spells and magitech machines, and that was their first use, much of the knowledge of utilizing them in that manner has been lost.

-The reason magical materials are used instead of just normal precious materials is because normal materials can be alchemized and thus mass produced. While it's easy to tell alchemized materials from natural ones if you know what to look for (alchemized materials lack any form of flaws or impurity, they're TOO perfect) the risk is too much for a standardized international currency.

-Even a shard with a relatively low value is still worth a lot to commoners, a piece of celestial bronze the size of an average rock is enough to buy dinner, rent a room for the night, and pay for breakfast at an average inn with enough left over to pay the "adventurer's insurance," reimbursing the inn owner for the common chaos that tends to follow adventurers around ie: bar brawls, guards bursting in to arrest the adventurers in the middle of the night, demon assassins, etc and so on.

[ThinkerX]

For the main nation of the main world, I go with a loose varient of the old Roman system (because that is where these people originally came from).

The main denomination or coin is the silver Dinar or Denarius and is how costs are almost always figured. Most ordinary sorts make around 10 - 20 dinar a day. For really poor sorts, it would be just a couple dinar, for the wealthier types, up to around 100 dinar a day.


Below the Dinar are iron, brass, or copper bits, checking in at around 1/10th - 1/5th the value of the Dinar (not strictly accurate historically speaking, but an attempt on my part to avoid confusing the reader over much). A 'bit' will usually get you a cup of ale or a bowl of gruel. A couple of them will get you a dirt cheap bunk for the night. Pretty much its 'pocket change'.

Gold Aures, worth ten Dinar (again not historically accurate) exist, but are used only for really major transactions - like buying a carriage or ship.

-=-=-=-=-=-

My other world is not all that metal rich, but does have lots of coastlines, so it is on a copper or brass standard (nation depending) rather than silver. The bottom level of 'coins' here are sea shells, which again, count as 'pocket change'.

[Benjamin Clayborne]

What kind of currencies are you using in your worlds?

What is the name of your chief monetary unit?

I am going to use the classical bronze, silver and gold system. 40 bronze equals 1 silver and 100 silver equals 1 gold. Then I thought about the name for this currencies. I thought that I was going to use some words from the language I'm creating. Then I've came up with another idea.

What do you feel about this naming below:

40 bronze leaf = 1 silver branch

100 silver branch = 1 golden tree

It makes sense to me and I actually like the metaphor in the naming. What do you think?

I'm using a generic copper/silver/gold system. Gold coins are sometimes referred to as "crowns" and silver coins as "eagles" (owing to the seal of the royal house on the back, which is an eagle). Copper coins are just coppers.

I've done a lot of world-building, but for some reason I never really got to the point of making any elaborate system of coinage.

[Saigonnus]

My coinage is fairly basic where it's used, much of the smaller villages and the like work more with a barter system. Copper, Silver, Gold coins generally differ in weight and value with the kingdoms they are used in. The kingdom in my WIP has a trade value of 30 copper to a silver and 15 silver to a gold crowns, beyond that gems or precious stones are used as currency.

Prices are fairly cheap for most things, at 5 copper a night at a cheap inn, 1 for a pint of local ale/beer, 2 for local wine. A simple meal (usually soup or stew with bread) is 2 also and 3 or 4 for a more extravagant meal (like meat and potatoes with bread). Basically trained horses are usually around 5 silver, three times that for a warhorse. I think any story should have at least a basic, functioning economy to add that depth to the story.

[Sheilawisz]

The money is something that is not often mentioned in Fantasy literature, or at least, what the money and the economy are like in a Fantasy world is not explained in detail... That does not surprise me really, because real-world economy is something that most people consider complicated and boring =)

In my Fantasy worlds money is rarely mentioned: My stories are about Mages, and they do not really need money because they can make anything they want appear out of nowhere- The common people are said to use silver coins and diamonds as money, and the Mages sometimes use magically-made silver to buy things for fun when they visit the cities.

They appreciate plum juice made with natural plums and wine made with natural grapes!!

This is a fun thread, Helleaven =)