Fantasy Currency Suggestions

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Varyon

a weak acid like HCl

Who characterizes HCl as a weak acid? It is a textbook example of a strong acid.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Who characterizes HCl as a weak acid? It is a textbook example of a strong acid.

I think it gets low credit because it's really just an acid; most of the ridiculously scary things are oxidizing agents as well as acids.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by Varyon

You could simply define what it means for your campaign. Maybe it means every metal up to iron (which would include titanium, but not copper). Maybe it's all the metals that result in the release of hydrogen gas when mixed with a weak acid like HCl (that's the chemistry definition, at least if going with "base metal means everything that isn't a noble metal"). Maybe it's an eclectic selection. The point is, if there are some metals that cannot be (easily) produced by magic, they may make for good coins.

That was a core part of the point I wanted to make in my post: You can't just say "simple metals" or even "base metals" and have it mean something specific without further clarification. A GM needs to define what it means and players looking to exploit are always going to try to find ways around a list.

It's why I suggest "no alloys". Yes that would allow creation of gold, but gold on its own holds little value beyond rarity and appearance. But if coins are made of alloys, that makes the process of forging them a lot more complex even if using magic.

Of course an entirely different approach to this is the DF one: Created and transmuted materials have a magical aura and only last for 24 hours until reverting to nothing or their original form. Given that the Counterfeiting roll takes days or weeks, that naturally prevents the use of magically created materials.

[Anthony]

Honestly, I have no idea why the earth spells affect such grotesque volumes; if we make shape earth comparable in efficiency to shape water (20 gallons per fp) it would affect a hex of earth to a depth of ... 4 inches.

[Drop Bear]

You need a "Latnum"(Star Trek) equivalent, not Immune to Magic just not cost effective to magic up on the regular.

or ask yourself just how common are Wizards more so those with the right Earth, Transmutation, Conjuring or Creation magic spells.

Perhaps this is why sufficiently powerful Wizards and skilled Alchemists are considered "Wealthy" jobs, they are not earning their money they are just making it.

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Who characterizes HCl as a weak acid? It is a textbook example of a strong acid.

Alchemists who can make it much more easily than other acids, such as nitric acid, or aqua regia, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids that dissolves gold.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Who characterizes HCl as a weak acid? It is a textbook example of a strong acid.

Whoops; I saw definitions talking about reaction with HCl, and similar ones talking about reaction with weak acids, and apparently forgot my chemistry and conflated the two. That was my bad.

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

Of course an entirely different approach to this is the DF one: Created and transmuted materials have a magical aura and only last for 24 hours until reverting to nothing or their original form. Given that the Counterfeiting roll takes days or weeks, that naturally prevents the use of magically created materials.

That works too, unless the setting designer wants permanent transmutation/creation to be a part of the setting.

[Michael Cule]

If magic can fake or outright create the substance you use as a currency then you're going to have to move to printed money rapidly.

Perhaps you could denominate it to entitle the bearer to demand the services of a wizard of a standard level of competency for a fixed periods of time?

(Wizards naturally tend to become perfectly spherical over time and so achieve the status of an economic standard.)

[Whitewings]

All specie currencies must have three qualities to work well in the long term: durable, consistent and have accepted value. Divisible is nice, but not essential. So perhaps the currency is gemstones of specified weights and quality, stamped into coins with the die and stamp I spoke of earlier. These would also have the advantage of requiring a suitably trained mage to turn them from coinage to whatever else. Gems are not malleable.

Does this seem like a reasonably workable currency, assuming mages with the needed training to produce gemstones at all number about one in 450 people overall, and ones capable of enchanting die and striker sets not more than one person in about ten thousand, before factoring in the artistic skill needed to replicate the design?

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Grains have also been used as a form of currency historically - indeed, it's believed the first official form of currency was barley, back in ancient Sumer.

Kept meaning to mention this - there's a thread for grain-based currencies, though based on the medieval version rather than the one from Sumer. The discussion there might be useful here.