The Currency in your World

[Chilari]

None. Seriously. No currency. No coinage. It's proving interesting to get my head around, but given I've based the culture on roughly 9th century BC Greece and coinage didn't come about until the 6th century BC (ish) my culture also has no coinage. But since I won't be going into too much detail regarding exchange rates between various commoditites I should be fine.

For those looking for a different form of currency, don't forget that electrum, a natural alloy of silver and gold, can be used for coinage, and indeed was in the ancient world. I like to imagine we can see the vestiges of it still in £2 and €1 coins, which have silver-coloured and gold-coloured metals with the latter forming a ring around the former, with the €2 coin inverted.

 

[Kit]

I'm so relieved to hear that I'm not the only one who just did not want to deal with coins and currency. I might need to touch on it for some cultures in my story, but my MC's do not use any metal, any jewelry; they have a real aversion to keeping/carrying around crap with them that doesn't have a practical use. They wouldn't really get why gold was supposed to be valuable, and would probably not be very excited about exchanging a fishnet that they had spent weeks preparing fibers for and more weeks knotting for a disc of shiny crap that doesn't appear to have a function. I want them to barter with outside cultures for what they need- they do produce and collect stuff that other people want- although I'm kind of anxious that this is eventually going to turn into a PITA as regards transporting the goods and being able to pay for stuff while they travel. I'm thinking of having them make little carvings and things that will be easily transportable, just for the purpose of selling to the gullible outlanders who for some reason will trade decent food for such fripperies.

 

[Jess A]

I went to the Shanghai Museum the other day and they had a fantastic collection of ancient to modern coins from all over the world. They had a whole 'Silk Road' section, too.

I have a pamphlet here. It says the Chinese were using paper notes as early as the 13th century. It says here that merchants issued a "kind of paper note called 'Jiao Zi' for trade, which became the earliest paper note in the world". This was to combat the weight of iron coins, which are hard to carry around. They also had coins made of tin and iron. And coins shaped like spades and swords, keys and large engraved rocks - there are even bronze coins which look like ants and tribal faces. They used shells and bones too.

Some coins were tiny. Some were enormous! Imagine carrying an iron dinner plate-sized coin around with you.

I have some basic ideas for my money system. Coins and bartering. I want to keep it simple. I haven't thought much beyond that, but I have some research to play with. I don't want my characters to be dragging around clunky coins. I may look into 'paper' notes for international trade, though gold, silver and other precious metals will work, too, as well as other commodities, such as timber and rare furs, silks and in some areas, slaves.

Each duchy will probably have the monarch on one side and the duchy's symbol on the other with the amount. The Euro has different countries on each coin. Like the Euro, the different duchy coins are otherwise the same and can be traded anywhere in the kingdom.

 

[Lawfire]

I like precious metals (and stones) as currency. However, many stories can be told without ever mentioning them.

 

[Lunaairis]

If your making a fantasy world and your going through the trouble of coming up with coinage, it’s important to note what are the coins measuring, because that is their value. This is especially important if you are a GM, so things don’t sound too cheap or too expensive. You don’t need to go thought the evolution of money , but if you are going to use a really small coin there must be a reason to use it. So here are some helpful things I picked up in history class.

History lesson:

Coins were invented so people wouldn't have to carry around all their large and not that valuable goods like bushels of wheat. A bushel of wheat was not that valuable and many of them were needed to buy a sheep, for instance. This means that the man of the house (in some cases) would need to carry something like 30 or more bushels to his local market in order to trade for a sheep. One man carrying 30 Bushels is burdensome; of course he could have his 10 children help carry them but this just means more mouths to feed , which means less wheat to trade for better things.
Not only that, he also needs to find people to trade his wheat with.
Coins were invented so that one person could sell his stock one day and then be free to search around the market for things to take home, no matter if it was something the seller was willing to trade with. This means that the coins the man uses to buy the sheep can get the sheep trader something else, like a donkey.
The coins would not go bad meaning that he could come back another time to pick something else up if needed and not be lugging around another sheep to trade with. (Or 30+ bushels of wheat)

The good part:


Originally Coins would represent the weight of an object. They were usually named after either the weight or the object they were meant to be . A great example being the Mesopotamian Shekel which was not only a coin but also a unit of weight referring to 180 grams of barley. (Or one loaf of plain bread) This means if you have 1 shekel you should be able to buy one loaf of bread for the day.
So if you’re going to tip someone, tipping them one loaf of bread is good and cheap, if you want a room for the night you could pay… 50 shekels? Depending on the place. The larger coins were invented because walking around with 100 shekels in your pocket was cumbersome, so why not just change the 100 into 1 Mina ( I don’t remember what their larger coins were called, so please bare with me) which could buy you a goat or something. This process continued until there is nothing really more expensive.


Of course your D&D Coppers don’t need to measure up with 1 bushel of wheat they could measure up with a bucket of apples if apples are a common and wanted food source or something. Gorons may measure there cheapest coin up with a pebble (seeing as they eat rocks and ores.) Of course its not limited to food, but food is something all creatures (humans, elf's, Squid-people) would want.

 

[johnsonjoshuak]

Because I intend to have several series set in the same world, I've worked out several different currency systems.

For my current Series-In-Progress, I use the copper-silver-gold standard, named Pennies, Shields and Crowns respectively. Other series include Imperial Schilling-Farthing-Guilder-Mark, Copper-Silver-Gold-Platinum Drachmas. There are a couple of Random Generator sites floating around that generate awesome name combinations for currency (my favorite is Seventh Sanctum , but Chaotic Shiny has a nifty "value" option that breaks down the currency into other units).

 

[Renee]

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've worked in banking for ten years, plus I'm a journeyman moneyer in the SCA. In other words, I am a money nerd and am LOVING this thread! Thank you for posting this!

Here are my thoughts on naming currency in general and your question in particular. These are legitimate coins I assume, meaning there is likely a mint, and behind that mint, a government of some sort. A body in power. And currency is a powerful and pervasive political symbol, something that wouldn't be lost on the people at the mint. It's a reminder of political power (portraits), ideals the government holds in high regard (Liberty dimes, etc), or cultural symbols (Australia's Kangaroo dollar coin). The choice reflects the mindset of the folks in power: a martial state is probably not going to put a cute furry animal on their coins.

So the government decides what to put on the coins, and the official name for the coins often comes from some part of the political forces in play when the currency was developed. For example, we use the dollar in the United States because it was a well known unit for currencies but it wasn't British. Earlier societies named their coinage based on several factors, but commonly it was based on what the holder could get in exchange (as was very well described, above).

There is a second source for names of coins: the populace. People are going to make up their own names for coins. My favorite example of this is the "Loonies and Toonies" up in Canada.

To me, the leave-branch-tree imagery is one of a serene, nature loving people. Does this describe the government that issued them? As a reader, I would be skeptical of a Klingon-type race that trades in 'branches' and 'trees.'

Because you are taking the time to introduce something different from the traditional/common & comfortable denomination names, referencing something in the story that the reader would recognize would make it more comfortable. Example, a story with a theocratic government based on an order of people who worshiped nature. In the prologue, you tell the story of a mythic oak that was said to grow on the grave of a great hero of the realm, one of the founders. Later, when your hero pays three trees, forty branches for his new steed, the observant reader will get the connection.

Also, as a reader, I'd suggest altering the names a bit. As I wrote the above sentence about the horse, I couldn't avoid the imagery of a man handing over the actual items. Plus, people like gold and silver so much because they are rare; trees, branches, and leaves, not so much. You could hold on to the original imagery calling them something different but explain somewhere that the names mean "leaf-branch-tree." As an alternative, going back to what people might take to calling them, give them nicknames: Oaks, Boughs, and Flats (or, you know, something). As support for nicknames, I'll point out that in my neck of the woods we use US Dollars, but if someone asks me how much they owe me for dinner, I'm going to tell them "Just give me twenty bucks and we're even!"

 

[Ireth]

As support for nicknames, I'll point out that in my neck of the woods we use US Dollars, but if someone asks me how much they owe me for dinner, I'm going to tell them "Just give me twenty bucks and we're even!"

Your comment here actually lends credence to the leaf-branch-tree names for the coins. People don't actually pay for things using deer hides anymore, yet we still call dollars "bucks", and "loonies" if you're Canadian (since the $1 coin has a loon on it). Why then can the aforesaid coins not be named after plant-based imagery? As long as it's clear, I don't see a problem.

 

[Renee]

Your comment here actually lends credence to the leaf-branch-tree names for the coins. People don't actually pay for things using deer hides anymore, yet we still call dollars "bucks", and "loonies" if you're Canadian (since the $1 coin has a loon on it). Why then can the aforesaid coins not be named after plant-based imagery? As long as it's clear, I don't see a problem.

Agreed! As long as it makes sense. The question is if the names are nicknames, like "bucks" and "loonies," or if that's what the official term is. I got the sense that the OP was referring to the tree-branch-leaf system as the official names, designated by the issuing authority, or possibly nicknames based on the designs printed on the coins.

 

[Mizily]

Tin shells, bronze spades, silver zephrs and golden pyres- meant to represent the four elements and the lands that stem from each, and their worth representing the social hierarchy. Sadly, I know nothing about economics, so any usage of this currency will probably be vague and skimmed over.

 

[Zero Angel]

I really only use currency between kingdoms, merchants and travelers. Every village probably has at least one set of scales for "hard" money, but the average joe uses barter if they can.

I am speaking of humes here though. Other races are more likely to have currencies depending on their civilizations. Dwarves in particular like hard money, while elves use chips that hold magick power (think batteries as currency).

 

[Astner]

Gold and silver -- sovereigns and noblemen respectively, based on that the gold coins have the emperor families's faces on them and the silver coins have the faces of various lords -- are the official currencies, but they rarely leave the noble and royal circles. The copper coins used by merchants and peasants to trade goods solely have an intrinsic value and suffers from inflation.

The mass ratio of silver to gold is ~1/60, and the mass ratio from copper to silver is ~1/180.