Alternate Currency Systems

[Nuclear Platypus]

How about the citizens hand over their wares to the gov'ts who in turn issue some sort of currency? Think koku, which was the amount of rice needed to feed 1 person for 1 year (about 48 gallons). Then currency becomes an easier measurement of what it can buy not what its worth / made of so maybe the currency representing a pound of fish is worth more than the currency representing a pound of grain (meat is more filling) unless other things are considered (can't make beer out of fish). Yup, alcohol as a sign of civilization (Mesopotamia).

Here's a wikipedia entry on Currency that might help out too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency

 

[Tonguez]

Take a look at the Yap Stone Money which seems highly appropriate for the Earth culture. Take it a step further and have a series of Obelisks which are treated as tradable comodity. The Earth cultures make a point of reciting the histories of each obelisk owned so as to enhance their value. Smaller limestone disks are treated smaller units

Pearls work since even in the ocean pearls aren't that common and rarity is pretty much a defining feature of any currency.

For the air people fugulrites (glass formed from lightning fused sand) might be valuable, another possibility is feathers (in particular the bright azure feathers collected from a rare Jubjub bird. Woven into feather belts they are gifted as marriage dowries and are tradable in their own right)

For the fire culture I'd use some kind of alloy or metamorphic substance that can only be created at extremely high temperatures

 

[Tonguez]

Another option is of course comodoties like Salt - for a desert dwelling culture bags of salt might be the standard currency

 

[Sigurd]

I would be careful to work back from the gold standard into the new areas or you might find your game balance thrown off. If your fire people value a particular mineral make sure that its at least desirable to the gold standard areas & not too plentiful or you could find one market floods another.

You can always get around these issues simply by denominations of some sort. The high king offers a currency which is valuable because he says so. For the purposes of the game the high king will convert your currency into that of his realm at a modest penalty.

 

[DamionW]

Take a look at the Yap Stone Money which seems highly appropriate for the Earth culture. Take it a step further and have a series of Obelisks which are treated as tradable comodity. The Earth cultures make a point of reciting the histories of each obelisk owned so as to enhance their value. Smaller limestone disks are treated smaller units

Pearls work since even in the ocean pearls aren't that common and rarity is pretty much a defining feature of any currency.

For the air people fugulrites (glass formed from lightning fused sand) might be valuable, another possibility is feathers (in particular the bright azure feathers collected from a rare Jubjub bird. Woven into feather belts they are gifted as marriage dowries and are tradable in their own right)

For the fire culture I'd use some kind of alloy or metamorphic substance that can only be created at extremely high temperatures

Not familiar with Yap stones, do you have a good reference I can look in? I also like certain feathers or the fulgurite idea for air, that might fit. Will have to look more at fulgurites and pick a species of bird to use feathers from. As for fire, I had considered the alloy of Brass to make coinage from, but that seemed to cheap a metal to match up against gold, and the earth realms would still be supplying the base metals to make the alloy.

I would be careful to work back from the gold standard into the new areas or you might find your game balance thrown off. If your fire people value a particular mineral make sure that its at least desirable to the gold standard areas & not too plentiful or you could find one market floods another.

You can always get around these issues simply by denominations of some sort. The high king offers a currency which is valuable because he says so. For the purposes of the game the high king will convert your currency into that of his realm at a modest penalty.

Good points, and I understand the significance. just need to find a way to incorporate them and to keep some amount of consistency in the campaigns economy. Also, I realized if a rogue entity does flood a market or counterfeit a currency, that's not necessarily a bad thing, just a plot hook for the PCs.