Alternate Currency

[mythusmage]

A little something for your entertainment. I'll be using it in my campaign setting too. You'll note that the names are British. Probably has something to do with the fact I was watching a number of BBC programs on The Science Channel at the time. (A special arrangement between The BBC and Discovery Networks.) In any case, here is my currency and the coins that make it up.

The Coins of Ki

The nations of Ki (those that have currency, that is) use coins made of three metals. These are copper (cu), silver (ag), and gold (au). The ratio between the three is: 20 copper to one silver, 50 silver to one gold. Each metal comes in a one ounce or smaller coin. For copper the one ounce coin is the Five Pence, for silver it is the Shilling , and for gold it is the Crown. A full list of the coins, their metal, and weight now follows.

Farthing: cu, 1/40 oz. Four to the Ha'penny. U.S. equivalent: Penny

Ha'penny: cu, 1/10 oz. Two to the Penny. U.S. equivalent: Nickel

Penny: cu, 1/5 oz. Five to the Five Pence. U.S. equivalent: Dime

Five Penny: cu, 1 oz. Two to the Ten Penny. U.S. equivalent; Half Dollar

Ten Penny: ag, 1/10 oz. Five to the Fifty penny. U.S. equivalent: Dollar

Twenty-Five Penny: ag, 1/4 oz. Two to the Fifty Penny. U.S. equivalent: None

Fifty Penny: ag, 1/2 oz. Two to the Shilling. U.S. equivalent: Five Dollar bill.

Shilling: ag, 1 oz. Five to the Five Shilling coin. U.S. equivalent: Ten Dollar bill.

Five Shilling: au, 1/10 oz. Two to the Ten Shilling coin. U.S. equivalent: Fifty Dollar bill.

Ten Shilling: au, 1/5 oz. Five to the Crown. U.S. equivalent: One Hundred Dollar bill.

Pound: au, 2/5 oz. Two and a half to the Crown. U.S Equivalent: None.

Crown: au, 1 oz. None larger in value. U.S. equivalent: None.

The traditional D&D gold piece is equal to the Ten Penny coin in this system. Adjust all prices accordingly. If you like being nice, do the same with treasure walues. If you'd rather be cruel, convert the gold piece value to Pennies.

Letters of Credit: Because metal coins can get heavy in bulk, some nations and financial institutions issue what are known as, "Letters of Credit." In most cases these letters are honored at face value, but not every issuer has a good reputation.

In this matter the worst is Country X (I'll come up with a real name later) who's letters of Credit are honored at 5% of their face value outside of Country X. It also costs a fee of 50% of the coin being converted to convert it to a Letter of Credit, with conversion being mandatory for any amount equal to a Shilling on up. Converting a Country X Letter of Credit back into real currency in Country X is illegal. Naturally, there is a thriving black market in Country X Letters of Credit.

Some countries have gone so far as to formally adopt the idea of the Letter of Credit as official currency. There anything larger than the Shilling is issued as a bill. Most often varying in size and with different colored designs. Famous people, famous landmarks, scenes from popular stories, religious themes, etc. This allows those countries to issue bills for values as large as 10,000 crowns. In either case, Letter of Credit or paper money, the item can be converted to the equivalent in precious metal at any time. But when you consider the storage and security problem of, say 10,000 ounces of gold versus a single piece of paper weighing about 3 ounces (the 10,000 crown bill is large, but not large enough for a sprite to use as a blanket despite any fables you may have heard), the fact most people prefer paper currency becomes understandable.

So there you have the Ki money system. Feel free to adopt to your game if you wish.

 

[mythusmage]

Revised Currency

After giving it some thought, I've decided to change the scheme a bit. The metals remain copper, silver, and gold, but now the values are as follows: (All values are in U.S. dollars)

Copper: One dollar an ounce.
Silver: Twenty dollars an ounce.
Gold: One thousand dollars an ounce.

In this iteration I decided to use U.S. currency. The coins below are listed according to metal and weight, with weight given in "grains". For those not in the know, the grain is a measure of weight approximately equal to the weight of a grain of wheat. For simplicity's sake I've set it at 400 grains to the ounce, though in reality it's actually a bit less. (You'll also note that the above values are somewhat higher than real world metal prices.) Having said all this, I now present my revised Ki Currency.

The Coins

Penny: cu, 4 grains (1 cent)
Nickel: cu, 20 grains (5 cents)
Dime: cu, 40 grains (10 cents)
Quarter: cu, 100 grains (25 cents)
Half Dollar: ag, 10 grains (50 cents)
Dollar: ag, 20 grains (1 dollar)
2 Dollar: ag, 40 grains (2 dollars)
5 Dollar: ag, 100 grains (5 dollars)
10 Dollar: au, 4 grains (10 dollars)
20 Dollar: au, 8 grains (20 dollars)
50 Dollars: au, 20 grains (50 dollars)
100 Dollar: au, 40 grains (100 dollars)
1,000 Dollar: au, 400 grains (1,000 dollars)

You'll note that most coins are quite small. At 20 grains the silver dollar comes in at 20 to the ounce, 320 to the pound. Still, the Ki equivalent of a 5,000 gold piece horde is a weighty subject.

Converting from the standard D&D gold piece is straighforward. One gold piece equal one silver dollar. So somebody with 300 gold pieces on him would, in the new scheme, have 300 silver dollars.

Everything I said above regarding letters of credit and paper money still applies.

Let me know what you think.

 

[mythusmage]

Follow Up

You'll note that in the above I kept it simple, refraining from using certain metals and alloys others have. I'll explain below.

Alloys such as brass, bronze, electrum, and orichalcum were avoided because figuring out their exact value according to the ratio of metals proved to be a pain. For instance, electrum (50% ag/50% au) would've come out at 510 dollars an ounce. In a system where currency is valued according to the strength of a nation's economy such would work, but no nation on Ki is that advanced economically. (It would also complicate the GM's life immeasureably.)

Where mithril (aka, mithral, mithrel, mithryl, etc.) and adamantium are concerned, I've decided that they don't exist in the Ki Universe. They just don't fit. So no adamantium weapons or mithril armor.

Platinum is not used as for coinage because it's too easily confused with Silver. It takes some training and experience to tell it from silver, so on Ki it's reserved for jewelry and objets de arte.

The same applies to Nickel and Aluminum. Both are too easily confused with silver to be useful as coin metals. In addition, the recent development of aluminum smelting magics have caused a catastrophic drop in aluminum prices, such that where once aluminum command upwards of 5,000 dollars an ounce, it's now fetching about 30 cents a pound.in most areas. (An adventuring band that once leveraged a mercantile empire using 10 ounces of aluminum now find themselves deep in debt because their surety bond is effectively worthless.)

Tin and zinc are not used because they are too useful for bronze and brass respectively. They also resemble silver too much when you consider their real value.

That's it for this shot. Below you'll find an essay on the actual value of copper, silver, and gold.

 

[mythusmage]

Real Values

Here's a dirty little secret of the coin business. The metal used in Ki coinage really isn't worth as much as the coins say they are. On the metals market copper goes for about 5 cents a pound. The discrepency between the coin value of silver and gold and their value as metals isn't quite so bad, but it's still substantial at 8 dollars an ounce for silver, and 400 dollars an ounce for gold. The value of the coins is based a lot on faith really, with people accepting the coins at face value largely because of tradition, and faith in the propity of the issuing nation.

If you like adding in complications, you could vary the value of a nation's currency based on the particular nation's reputation. Dollars from a well thought of country would buy more than dollars from a land with a bad repute.

Some countries have noticed this, and are experimenting with coins made of brass, bronze, or (in one case) aluminum. The response has been mixed, and acceptance slow, but more and more people are starting to use so called "junk metal" coins. Still, it's but a handful of countries at present.

No nation on Ki has even contemplated divorcing currency from a gold or silver base. The very idea hasn't even crossed their minds. No one has yet has done a Ki verson of The Wealth of Nations, so the proposition that a nation's wealth is based on the productivity of her population and not on the value of the precious metals she holds has yet to be made.

All this means that if you happen to be carrying a 1,000 dollars in aluminum coins, you can exchange it for the 1,000 dollar gold coin at any time.

There you have essay three in this series. Comments are welcome. At this time I can't promise a fourth, or that I'll be able to keep it short, but keep your eyes peeled for later installments.

 

[Azure Trance]

I'm sorry I can't offer an indepth commentary of your work right now as I'm taking a small break from studying, though while skimming what looks to be very interesting essay on alternate coinage I just wanted to ask - you didn't include platinum coins because it's too easily confused with silver. But wouldn't a) the weight of the heavier platinum show it off then the lighter silver of which the commoner is more used to, and b) the stamps used to create the coins are counterfeit resistant and if marked as Platinum Coin, it is a Platinum Coin?

 

[mythusmage]

The difference in density between silver and platinum really isn't that great. At a weight of 40 grains both would appear to be the same size at first glance. There is also some difference in appearance between the two metals, but it takes some experience with platinum to notice it. So rather than confuse things, folks would much rather not use platinum coins. For really large amounts the preferred way to carry it is in the form of a letter of credit, or as a number of large bills.

BTW, nobody stamps their coins "silver", "gold" etc. since it is rather easy to tell gold from copper. Besides which, not everybody can read. The difference in metal is what most people rely on to tell one 20 grain coin apart from another of greater or lesser value.

In a sense the more advanced nations of Ki are on the brink of going from a currency based economy to a mercantalism based one, but nobody has yet made the conceptual leap.

Hope that cleared things up a bit.

 

[Drawmack]

This is a rather interesting disection. I am left wondering if you are attempting to come up with a conversion between real world money and DnD currency though.