Fantasy World Coinage

[_Michael_]

So, I'm seeking numismatists and others knowledgeable about coins, scales, and particularly about money changers and setting up a fantasy system of multiple different coins from different nations to add realism. Yes, I'm aware of D&D's penchant for using a base-10 system, and I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, just add more depth to it by making a more realistic system where there will be different coins and exchange rates for different nations.

I'm designing a low-magic/high-damage campaign world where there is an organization (the High Council of Wizardry) that acts as a non-political body comprised of magic users who seek to prevent another extinction-level event like the Schism that cast human civilization back thousands of years from an era of high-technology and magical artifice (the Age of Dreams). The High Council has filled in the gaps for the last three millennia, recovering lost lore and rebuilding civilization, including the creation of a trade language called Lani to facilitate humanity's rebirth. Part of that was a standardization of coins; while the coinage itself isn't standard, the methods of measuring it are.

All coins are measured on two scales called kovanale. The kovanale scales measure both the weight and the specific gravity of the coin through a system that uses a mercury cylinder to determine displacement. By measuring the weight and displacement thusly, fraudulent coins are detected. All coins also have a square hole in them of a very specific size regardless of coin size. This allows any coin from any kingdom to be immediately measured and exchanged according to standardized international rates. The scales and weights used by the keepers of kovanale, called kovani, are kept under lock and key at all times, and interfering with a kovani is generally treated very harshly by all nations and kingdoms akin to tax fraud.

Any ideas on the scales themselves would be cool, too. I'm pretty sure that the technology existed in medieval times to make such a scale that used a series of weights and a liquid to measure displacement to detect fraudulent coins--any ideas here would be appreciated.

So far, this is what I've come up with:

Solastian (Arkenheim) Coinage
Quarter-Copper Piece = Farthing
Half-Copper Piece = Half-fennig
Copper Piece = Fennig (Fenna, Fenny, regional dialect examples)
Double-Copper Piece = Bronze Eagle
Five-Copper Piece = Bronze Crown
Silver Piece = Argent (Argus, Argul, regional dialect examples)
Double-Silver Piece = Silver Eagle
Five-Silver Piece = Silver Crown
Gold Piece = Solarin (Solar, Solarn, regional dialect examples)
Double-Gold Piece = Gold Eagle
Five-Gold Piece = Gold Crown
Platinum Piece = Sovereign

The next kingdom (Sintar) I'm not quite finished with yet, but the language is roughly based on Croatian to give it a regional flavoring. The kingdom is a bicameral mercantile oligarchy comprised of wealthy merchant families in what is officially titled the Solin Court of the Khanar. Hence, some of the coin names.

Sintari (Sintar) Coinage
Half-Copper Piece = Panzh (worth 1/2 Talir)
Copper Piece = Talir
Silver Piece = Tolar(worth 10 Taliri)
Gold Piece = Solin (worth 10 Tolari)
Platinum Piece = Khanar (worth 50 Solins)

This is all I got so far. The Solastian coinage will likely be the Dollar of the fantasy world--accepted by all and the most common coinage found in trade. I want at least a dozen coinage systems and will probably shoot for more. Yes, it's a pain, and it adds a heavy granularity to RPGs, but it shouldn't be that cumbersome if most common coins are those of the Solastians and those can be changed at money changers for local currency no problem. I figure the ability to add some detail to treasure charts is going to be worth the extra work on the front-end. "You found a bag of fifty or so fennigs, mixed in with a dozen argents and a couple of solarins, along with a handful of gold coins you don't recognize," sounds a lot better than, "You found a sack of gold coins."

Looking for any input. Anyone whose done something similar--how did you make it work? Did you keep it all in base-10 or go the British route with their shillings and pounds and whatnot? I'd like to stay with the base-10 system and just vary off that baseline, if possible, and try to avoid denominations of 3 or 6 or other oddball numbers. Any advice for making it work? How should I set up exchange tables to make them quick and easy? I was going to just have each kingdom listed with it's own exchange rate measured against the Solastian coinage as my measuring stick. Any help would be appreciated, especially coming up with names for the coinage that is punchy and not overly-cumbersome.

 

[Prince of Spires]

My initial thought is that having a system of measurements survive for 3 millennia, be fool-proof, and be accepted by all nations sounds highly implausible. Just look at the European Union to see how hard it is to get different nations to actually agree on anything, let alone something as important and individual as currency. It only takes 1 leader deciding to devalue his currency and leaving the system to break the thing.

You seem to be talking about a game though, and not a story, so I wouldn't mind it in that setting. For a game, money is money. It's a tool to buy gear. As long as it does that, I wouldn't think too much on it.

A few other thoughts. After 3 millennia, you can be sure that there is a black market out there, where they have either a stolen kovanale or where they rigged the ones used in the town. Nothing is fool-proof, and people will be people. Either someone hopes to make some extra money, or can be blackmailed. Either way, someone somewhere will find a way to work around the system and abuse it.

If you can exchange money freely and easily, then I don't think it'll matter much. It adds a nice flavor, but as long as Solastian coins are accepted everywhere, then other coins will end up a bit like books and other junk in Skyrim. Light stuff you collect to exchange for money at some later point when you get to a willing merchant.

 

[_Michael_]

I want to keep it as lightweight as possible. Also, keep in mind that it wasn't a standard for three millennia, it was evolving over that time to the current system. Kovanale are likely to be a relatively recent technology, and the scales keepers are treated like magistrates or judges. Yeah, it's not fool proof, but I think the system would have enough checks in it to prevent someone from being able to mint fake coins using kovanale to cheat currency for long--they'd eventually be found out.

I actually want to introduce money of account and marks as a way to use letters of credit for purchasing goods and whatnot, for large sums of cash. That way, an adventuring party can cart back piles of sovereigns and gold solarins, deposit the coinage with a local money changer (where an official tax officer records everything so that the barony can account for the influx of currency and witness it so the money changer can't cheat the adventurers) and get issued money of account papers.

And of course, forged coins, forged letters of credit, forged money of account slips with forged wax seals all add to the underworld drama going on beneath the surface. Thieves guilds don't just burgle houses, they engage in all sorts of confidence games, forgeries, money fraud, and hawala banking. In fact, I'd daresay the local theives' guild would be the biggest source of monetary intrigues in town next to the money changers.

I don't think exchanges would be free, but subject to a nominal tax, likely an excise tax of some sort to cover minor expenses, such as a 1-10% tax rate depending on the amount being exchanged. It's meant to be minimal, and make players have to do some legwork to find a money changer. This forces the players to deal with the reality of hauling 100,000 coins out of a dragon's hoard and spend it. You're not going to simply toss a couple of saddlebags over your horse and be done. lmao Most dragon hoards take multiple carts to haul away. Nobles and royals have a vested interest in maintaining stable currency, and the sudden devaluation of money overnight by a couple of loud oafs who pilfered a wyvern hoard is going to draw official inquiry.

All of this is full of plot hooks as there are dozens of ways things can go wrong with the local bureaucracy when players show up suddenly flush with bags of coins and are spending them like a drunken sailor. There's bound to be some official inquiry to satisfy the local noble that the money wasn't just stolen from the local tax collector, and if it's free and clear, how can this noble get his hands in the pie--maybe try to intimidate the players or frighten them with Official Acts into giving up a portion of their loot?

Part of it, too, is simply the desire to make an RPG more of a literary experience. Giving the coins names permits better dialogue writing. I think some of it is the desire to have something that can be used as a source book for fictional literature, while simultaneously making it a very detailed RPG. Wheel of Time seemed to go this route. With the Solastian coins having evolved to become the global benchmark (mostly since the High Council would be the most likely to go after forgers), it should be easy to just do a side-by-side comparison of each kingdom's currency in each individual kingdom's write-up as a sidebar chart. Might not be able to find money changers in small villages and hamlets, who might be inclined to only accept the local currency. More complications for the players to deal with that opens the door to further plot hooks. Moreover, some kingdoms do not permit agents of the High Council in their borders, so some areas might not have access to Solastian coinage.

Most likely, the names will not last in the RPG because most players refer to coins in the vernacular, but their having to find moneychangers and deal with exchange rates in larger towns and cities might offer some entertainment value so long as it's not cumbersome and prevents players from being able to execute their plans. I'm trying to strike that perfect balance. Each kingdom write-up will have the currencies listed, and a simple Knowledge (Local) check with a simple DC of like 10 will give players the information on local coinage.

Coming up with good-sounding names for the coinage is another problem I'm hoping someone can give me some advice on. Trying to be distinctive while vaguely familiar is like trying to hunt wild unicorns. lol

 

[pmmg]

You've already got way more to your in game currency than I do.

I've actually spent years tying out terms for the coinage and only for a scattered few, settled on a name for it I like.

But economies are dynamic, and the value of coins is never the same from one area to the next, even if there is agreement on coinage. The real value of money is how much of the same thing can it buy, or as I tend to use, how many cheeseburgers can it buy?

In an RPG, the immersion is improved by having such names, but I suspect players will drift to just gold/silver/copper with a narrow concept of one gold piece in one area is kind of the same as a gold piece in another.

I my stories, I dont have many coins changing hands. Some characters have bartered for other things though.

I dont know what to recommend for names. I would want something that sounded regional, have an idea of how it came to be that, and it should have a name that might seem settled on, cause if I call them Tokerals, people will probably just call them Toks. I do try to avoid real world terms for my story world, so no farthings and pence.

 

[_Michael_]

Further background: The reason I am putting all this together is because it's all going into a sort of in-world travelogue, as though the High Council were publishing an almanac/atlas of Erdeyn. That's why the need to know the coinage values and names. I finally finished the deities and I'm finishing up the Evergloom section. Next comes the kingdom-by-kingdom breakdown, I think. I might do surface races, though, before that. Better to get the coinage names out of the way, though.

Plus, for story-writing purposes, it will make it vastly easier to write scenes where I don't have to steer around conversations about money because I don't want to use just generic terms. Now, "He pulled out a few fennies and tossed them into the bard's collection jar," sounds better than, "He pulled out a few copper coins and tossed them into the bard's collection jar."

The other thing, too, is what other metals should I use? I want to use bronze for the Sintari as they're a clone of the Nauts from Greedfall, only with my own twist on them to make them unique and fit them in the world.

 

[pmmg]

I would have to assume that the elements and rareness of metals are still the same even on a fictional world. But, if gold were a common metal, per se, it probably would not be worth as much. If silver were rarer and gold common, the coins might actually reverse in value.

Ive used Iron as currency, but mostly in the temple of the war god. It would not fly on the street. Pretty much anything you have that someone wants, that you can use to trade for something you want, is currency. So, it could just be beads.

Bronze is an alloy, so it might be more expensive to make coins with it than they are worth.


You could just say he pulled out some coins, and not define them. They could just be understood to be silver.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Iron would be a valuable commodity when people know how to work it, but it's pre-iron smelting technology. Counting on Native iron would make it worth more for sure. However, in that case, most people would rather use it for something other than coins. Or, on islands that have a minimal supply.

The fun part is, most small villages and towns won't have exchanges... find someone with the coin to trade (questionable depending on the developmental period), and you'd be bound to get gouged. All local currencies will assume a premium on their value, historically, unless the local coinage has been debased. Bullion will (almost) always be worth less than the same weight of material in minted coins, while ore is less valuable than bullion, so, you would tend to get bullion value for foreign coins (or less, depending on taxation and other gouges).

 

[_Michael_]

The one upside to bronze is it's harder than copper. A lot harder. That would make shaving the coins harder, and could be one of the limiting factors as to why coin debasing and fraudulent coins would be rare. I thought the value of coins was not only in bullion, but in the fact that it was known set amounts of the ore. You were paying a premium for the peace of mind knowing that your gold coin was worth exactly what it was worth and not just what you hoped it was worth.

What other anti-counterfeiting technologies for the coins existed in medieval era cultures?

 

[Aldarion]

Solastian (Arkenheim) Coinage
Quarter-Copper Piece = Farthing
Half-Copper Piece = Half-fennig
Copper Piece = Fennig (Fenna, Fenny, regional dialect examples)
Double-Copper Piece = Bronze Eagle
Five-Copper Piece = Bronze Crown
Silver Piece = Argent (Argus, Argul, regional dialect examples)
Double-Silver Piece = Silver Eagle
Five-Silver Piece = Silver Crown
Gold Piece = Solarin (Solar, Solarn, regional dialect examples)
Double-Gold Piece = Gold Eagle
Five-Gold Piece = Gold Crown
Platinum Piece = Sovereign

Sintari (Sintar) Coinage
Half-Copper Piece = Panzh (worth 1/2 Talir)
Copper Piece = Talir
Silver Piece = Tolar(worth 10 Taliri)
Gold Piece = Solin (worth 10 Tolari)
Platinum Piece = Khanar (worth 50 Solins)

I am not certain any historical state ever used so many coins as in your first example.

Also, the way you are differentiating coins is confusing. "Quarter-copper", "half-copper"...

 

[pmmg]

Ridges, milling the edge, weight and material, maybe the front and back image could be used to deter counterfeiting, but its kind of up to the recipient to be the judge of that.

How deep into coin technology could these be? If it looks right, and it weighs right, and I bite it and its soft...I think I would take it.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Execution or other wonderful punishments, heh heh. People took counterfeiting seriously.

Known, set amount of metal is the trouble. The problem bigger than counterfeiting was at least twofold. It's been years since I really looked into this, but... Standardized minting was not all that simple. So, regional mints could cause problems even if legit. But in reality, much like today, the gov't itself is the biggest threat. Say you're Empire X and you mint a fabulous coin with perfect ratios (which really is most important). You do this for, oh, twenty-five years and yor coin has an awesome reputation. So much so, that people in other countries want to trade with your coin. Well, you get into an expensive war and need more money, so you lower the ratios in your coins without telling anyone. If you're lucky, you get away with it, and if not, your currency loses trust value.

Counterfeiting was easier, sort of, because, as I mentioned, there were regional mints and the quality levels of the die were inconsistent. How many can you make before damage and wear? If you look at Roman coins, you will see a wide variance in quality. Because of this, if you could create something close, it would be difficult to call it fake.

The one upside to bronze is it's harder than copper. A lot harder. That would make shaving the coins harder, and could be one of the limiting factors as to why coin debasing and fraudulent coins would be rare. I thought the value of coins was not only in bullion, but in the fact that it was known set amounts of the ore. You were paying a premium for the peace of mind knowing that your gold coin was worth exactly what it was worth and not just what you hoped it was worth.

What other anti-counterfeiting technologies for the coins existed in medieval era cultures?

 

[Finchbearer]

It was never more complicated than pounds, shillings and pence. Super basic.

 

[pmmg]

It was never more complicated than pounds, shillings and pence. Super basic.

You sure about that?

I am not even sure what a shilling is worth. And didn't England give us half pennies and farthings?


America is much easier...We just bang the credit card, and all the rest doesn't matter


(Cept for maybe gas stations, cause for some reason they get to charge me 9/10ths of a penny, even though there is no way to pay it).

 

[Aldarion]

It was never more complicated than pounds, shillings and pence. Super basic.

It actually was.

Diocletian's coinage is one, fairly simple, example:

• Aureus = 24 Argentuses
• Argentus = 5 Follises
• Follis = 5 Antonianuses
• Antonianus

Aureus was gold coin, coined at 60 coins per pound. So each aureus had 5,46 g of gold.
Argentus was 3,41 g of silver.
Follis was a bronze coin that was covered in silver.
Antonianus was a pure bronze coin.

This might give different values:

http://www.numisbel.be/2017_6.pdf

 

[_Michael_]

Actually, the british system was probably the most complicated. They did indeed use a lot of weird deominations like the farthing, pence, two-pence, half-pance, shilling, pound, and guinea. Let's see if I get it right:

Guinea = worth 1 pound and 1 shilling
Pound = worth 20 shillings
Shilling = worth 12 pennies
Six-pence = Six pennies
Two-Pence (Tuppence) = two pennies
Penny = A penny
Half-penny = 1/2 penny
Farthing = 1/4 penny

Not even sure where pounds-sterling fits in that. British aren't unique in this, though. For Americans, we have:

Penny (Copper steel)
Nickel (Standard and Buffalo)
Dime (Nickel or Zinc)
Quarter
Half-Dollar
Silver Dollars (pre-1965 were 99.999 silver)
Gold Dollars (Sacagaweas, Gold Eagles)
FRNs (fiat currency about to implode)
Silver Certificates (money of account redeemable in silver upon demand)
Gold Certificates (money of account redeemable in gold upon demand)

So one thought I had was since the actual ore content ratios were susceptible to fraud and forgery, I figured all coins would have a center hole simply to be able to put them on a scale. Having a scale that measures specific gravity would eliminate much of the money tampering since it's next to impossible to fake specific gravities. However, I don't know how "sensitive" such a system would be in terms of extermely fine differences between the specific gravities of something like gold versus lead. Is it a broad difference or so narrow that one could easily be taken for the other without extremely find measuring scales that wouldn't have existed with medieval technology?

Execution or other wonderful punishments, heh heh. People took counterfeiting seriously.

Say you're Empire X and you mint a fabulous coin with perfect ratios (which really is most important). You do this for, oh, twenty-five years and yor coin has an awesome reputation. So much so, that people in other countries want to trade with your coin. Well, you get into an expensive war and need more money, so you lower the ratios in your coins without telling anyone. If you're lucky, you get away with it, and if not, your currency loses trust value.

This is why I think the High Council would be set up to vigorously pursue and prosecute anyone tampering with the coinage (execution would definitely be on the menu depending on severity to make examples of them) and the actual officially-sanctioned moneychangers would be relatively rare as they'd all have to be upstanding citizens of unimpeachable reputation to be considered for the role. This is sort of the why behind how the High Council's standards on various things became so widely accepted. They operate stiffly according to the law and with unmitigated equal application of the law. On the other hand, thieves' guilds exist to liberate money from the local populace, so they'd likely be operating money laundering and coin tampering rings. I can see some of them, however, understanding that if the coinage goes away because of debasement, they themselves start losing money, so they'd have a vested interest in keeping the money system flowing so they can continue fencing goods and running small-time con jobs and bank heists. This is all stuff ripe with plot hooks for intrigue and drama.

Also, since we're talking about a fantasy world, what about mass enchantments at a mint? Small cantrips on each coin that alter the magical field around it (perceivable only by a wizard using Detect Magic, for instance) by color or pattern to alert money changers to altered or fake coins? Something that small would be inexpensive, and could be made unique so that someone can't just come along after the fact, dispell it, and replace it with a faked magical aura.

I appreciate all the feedback! Very informative! Thank you! Loving the thread's responses!

 

[Finchbearer]

Guinea = worth 1 pound and 1 shilling
Pound = worth 20 shillings
Shilling = worth 12 pennies
Six-pence = Six pennies
Two-Pence (Tuppence) = two pennies
Penny = A penny
Half-penny = 1/2 penny
Farthing = 1/4 penny

What’s so complicated about this system? I mean sure working out that there is in fact 240 pennies in a pound rather than the modern day 100 would have meant you’d have to be better at mental math, but still. Plus setting is also something worth considering whether you use this coinage or not - farthings would have been used at like a market stall or something whereas guineas would have been like the modern day equivalent of a £50 note. They’d hardly ever get used. Probably only used for high purchase items or in banks. We still have two pence pieces…and pennies.

 

[Finchbearer]

The Hungarian Pengo on the other hand got…complicated!

 

[Aldarion]

The Hungarian Pengo on the other hand got…complicated!

Ironically, Matthias Corvinus actually somehow managed to create a system where 1 gold florin equaled 100 silver dinars. And his system was so stable that it remained in place until mid-16th century!

 

[_Michael_]

Ironically, Matthias Corvinus actually somehow managed to create a system where 1 gold florin equaled 100 silver dinars. And his system was so stable that it remained in place until mid-16th century!

Interesting...now I have to go look it up. Was it completely a base-10 system?

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Magic changes everything; that makes it a bit like tech level. But if you're hitting that point, why not a fiat or gold standard paper currency with a central authority like that?

In my world, I don't go into such detail in the books with exchange rates, but every culture has their own coinage system. There is also a point where some major banks have writs of value (a bit like a check) that require signatures, stamps, and secret words to validate their exchange, depending on value. But it's also used to just transfer wealth when traveling, so you don't have to carry trunks of coins or jewels. The Templars had something similar setup at one point.