Fantasy Currency Suggestions

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by Whitewings

But the spell Shape Earth causes a problem: I have no problem allowing it to be used to create gemstone, but since it can also be used to create metals,

Minor nitpick, but you seem to be talking about Earth to Stone and not Shape Earth here. Shape Earth can only change the shape of earth and stone, not change the composition (and it can't be used to mold metals, you need Shape Metal for that).

With that out of the way, metallic coins could still exist, but you would use metal alloys such as bronze (copper + tin) or steel (iron + coal), since Earth to Stone can only create simple metals these materials would be harder for a mage to create. Both steel and bronze have been used to make weapons and armor, giving both value on their own. Some other historical alloys include brass (copper + zinc), electrum (gold + silver), billon (silver + copper), and sterling silver (also silver + copper), some of these were invented for use as coinage that wasn't easy to forge (for the tech available).

It's worth noting that most alloys use specific ratios of each material, especially when talking about alloys used for coinage. Someone without expert knowledge in the field would most likely fail many times at creating an alloy suitable for forgeries.

On top of this, metal coins were (almost) never blank discs, but instead used a design based on the current ruler of the area. This adds another layer of complexity for a mage looking to create wealth from nothing.

If a mage were to create a pile of steel coins, they'd have to a) cast Earth to Stone (at double cost if targeting soil) to create iron, followed by casting Create Fuel TL/4 (or 5) on a rock to create coal. Then they'd have to spend time combining the two into steel using a crucible*. Once they have the steel they can start minting the coins, which requires a Counterfeiting roll and an amount of time (days to weeks) determined by the GM.

Not only would the mage need to get the proper mix of base metals (or other materials) that the alloy needs, they'd also need to follow the correct procedure for combining them into the alloy. If they mess up there, they'd need to start over or the coins would be almost instantly recognizeable as fakes. Then they'd have to spend time making fake coins with the alloy. And unless they get a critical success on the Counterfeiting roll, there's still the chance they get discovered every time they use one of their forged coins.

Overall, the entire process requires skills diverse enough that it isn't believable that a 150 points individual would possess all of them at a useful level. It's something a criminal organisation (or hostile nation/ruler) could be trying to do, and most intelligent rulers would be on the lookout for this type of thing.

*The Heat spell can be used, but (unless you're only heating up something the size of a fist) you're looking at a total of 170 FP (2 FP/minute for 85 minutes) to reach the required temperature to make steel. It's not a bad deal if you have Heat at 20, but that would be a massive investment for most.