Tell me about your monetary systems

[Frost]

I have found that world/period currencies are a quick way to build a bit of atmosphere but like most people I tend to work in G$ for convenience. As a result of this my worlds usualy have the general outline of two or three monetary systems which I can run interchaingeably with th basic G$ depending upon the needs of the moment.

For my current campaign I have two major systems:
The Eastern system consisting of the Slip (until I can think of something better) a silver coin about the size of a modern five pence peice worth $1, the Stiver (stolen from a novel) a somewhat larger silver coin worth $5 and the Stater ($100) usualy a unit of account although heavy silver coins are occasionaly struck and circulated.

In case this system seams too neat there are also gold merchants tokens used to handle large transfers of money typicaly valued at 1/2, 1 or 2 Staters and which may or may not be legal tender in any given place and time. On top of this the locals have discovered the wonders of paper money in a variety of denominations often circulating at a discount against its nominal value.

The western system is much simpler officialy the only circulating currency is an as yet unnamed silver coin worth $4 with large transactions using stamped or moulded bars valued by weight instead of coin. Local governments often permit and even issue unnoficial copper or bronze tokens valued at 1/4 and 1/8 of a silver coin to facilitate internal trade although this is technicaly illegal.

[Hai-Etlik]

I remember a fantasy MOO I was helping to develop. (As with so many projects like it, it never went anywhere).

The humans in the setting used precious metal coins, but the elves used a metal/service backed currency using alchemicaly treated wood (actually bark) tokens. A special, tree produced a thick, porous bark something like cork. Elven alchemists could stamp tokens out of it, and then boiled it in a herbal treatment that toughened and hardened it. The same alchemists would exchange the tokens for various precious materials and for chemical services and products.

Oh yes, and denominations were in powers of seven. Seven being a highly significant number to the elves.

[Seramarias]

I have a bad habit of being sucked into the minutia of any setting I try to design, often with the end result of never actually putting together enough for play. That said, here's the currency breakdown for the last fantasy setting I worked on.


Copper, silver, and gold are the coins of the realm, along with their alloys billion and electrum. Several other rare or exotic metals are valued and traded, but not used for coinage. (Meteoric iron, truesilver, and orichalcum among them.) Local coinage is minted in imitation of the Old Empire coins, are assayed at 90% pure metal, and come in copper panis (which are sometimes snapped into halves or quarters, and are called pennies or loaves), billion quattuors, (called quarters or 4-loaves), billion haedi (Singular haedus, called goats or lambs) silver asters (stars), electrum regii (singular regius, called princes or crowns), gold solis, (sun, five-star.) , and gold basili (singular basilicus, called kings or royals). Foreign or antique coins are valued by weight and purity of metal, but are always measured against the Old Empire standard. By tradition, a panis was supposed to be the price of a loaf of bread, but fluctuations in price mean that this isn't always true. By the same token, it's claimed that in the Old Empire a haedus would actually buy you a goat or young sheep. A panis is like a thicker British penny; a quattuor is fractionally smaller; a haedus is a cartwheel of a coin ¼” thick and 1 3/8” across with an aster being just a little smaller. A regius is a little bigger than a modern quarter, and also a little bigger than a solis. A basilicus is almost as big as a haedus.
Panis $1 loaf of bread on one side, ear of wheat on the reverse, a little over ½ oz.
Quattuor $4 four loaves arranged in a diamond shape, reverse has a wreath of wheat and the number 4, ½ oz.
Haedus $10 a leaping kid, reverse has a pair of stylized horns embracing the number 10, apx. 1.5 oz
Aster $20 five-pointed star-burst with wavy rays, reverse has a crescent moon supporting the number 20, apx. 1 ¼ oz.
Regius $100 young man in a cloak leaning on a sword, reverse shows a crown above 100, apx. 0.8 oz
Solis $400 ring of five stars around the sun, reverse shows a full moon behind a 400, 1.25 oz.
Basilicus $1000 crowned man enthroned, reverse shows a crossed sword and scepter overprinted with the number 1000, 3.2 oz.

[Johnny1A.2]

In my Atlantis setting, the Atlanteans used a coin-based system, their coins were squares of metal with rounded edges and a square hole in the center, and a script around the edge the identified the coin. They used three main coins for large sums, a mostly-gold coin (about 75% with some copper for hardness), a gold/silver coin, and a mostly silver coin. For smaller purchases they used a set of smaller silver squares of lower purity. Officially (though not always in practice) 1 gold equalled 12 gold/silver, qhich equalled 12 big silvers. Each of the smaller denominations was worth four of the next biggest, and there were three ranks of small denominations below the big three (so the smallest coin was worth 64 of the big silver coin).

So it was a Gold (G), Electrum (gold/silver) (E), and Great Silver (GS) for the big coins.

One Great Silver was worth four High Silver (HS) coins.
One High Silver was worth four Medium Silver (MS) coins.
One Medium Silver was worth four Low Silver (LS) coins.

As a thumb rule, one Medium Silver would (usually) just about buy a filling meal for a grown man, consisting of a serving of meat, bread, a vegetable of some kind, and a mug of beer or a large glass of average wine (or the equivalent of these things).

[gruundehn]

I reccomend the book ORBIS MUNDI which is a detailed look at medieval times. One of the points that the author makes is that quite often coins were debased or the coins were light weight when minted and therefore were weighed in other countries and discounted if they did not meet standards. Debasing coins can make a campaign more interesting or more of a pain depending.
In my upcoming campaign I am doing the brass farthing to equal $1 GURPS and making it about the size of a US cent. The penny ($4) will be the next coin up and either be silver or brass depending upon where minted. The shilling ($48) is next and will be silver. Then comes the crown or royal or something similar ($960) and will be gold.
I haven't figured out the size of the coins other than the farthing yet, that comes further along. I also will have at least one culture that is not left over from the Randan Empire and thus will use different coins. The coins may be the same but with different names or be different in size and relative value, I haven't decided yet.
Just as with calendars, money gets the players into the mood and helps bring them into the fantasy.