08-12-2024, 11:48 AM | #31 | |
Join Date: Oct 2007
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Re: Fantasy Currency Suggestions
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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. |
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08-12-2024, 11:55 AM | #32 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Fantasy Currency Suggestions
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For an extremely high-magic setting, you could also crib from the movie In Time, where the currency is lifespan. In that, it's some sort of limited immortality genegineering - people stop aging at 25, but have a bioluminescent clock on their wrist that counts down how much time they have left, starting with only 2 years. So long as they keep getting their time refreshed, they'll live forever (unless they take a bullet to the chest or similar). And all currency has been replaced with that time to live - it gets reduced to purchase things and you get paid for work in time (there are also devices where one can store time outside of a person; those under the age of 25 need to use such for transactions, as their own lifespans are untouchable). One can imagine a Fantasy version, with magic stones that can store lifespan, and being able to use it to make oneself younger (and spending it from personal reserves artificially aging you). Or it could be more like how it functioned in Chrno Crusade, where you essentially have a set amount of time to be alive and if you spend all of it, you simply die young (which is a bit more akin to how it functioned in In Time).
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08-12-2024, 12:30 PM | #33 | |||
Join Date: Nov 2004
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Re: Fantasy Currency Suggestions
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Many cultures consider those desirable and decorative, which isn't the same thing. Purely decorative items are luxuries, and luxuries make useful currencies. You can't eat gold, you can't make it into a knife or a plow or an axe or a hammer, you can't burn it as fuel. Those are useful things. Quote:
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08-12-2024, 01:05 PM | #34 | |
Join Date: Jul 2005
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Re: Fantasy Currency Suggestions
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08-12-2024, 01:36 PM | #35 | |||
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Fantasy Currency Suggestions
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*From the perspective of the user, anyway. **You totally can, it just won't give you any nourishment. Quote:
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08-12-2024, 01:39 PM | #36 |
Join Date: Nov 2004
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Re: Fantasy Currency Suggestions
It only has to be difficult enough that it's easier for people with the skills/resources to do it to make a decent living on the right side of the law. That, combined with a reasonably efficient investigation/enforcement process for finding coiners, will serve to keep counterfeiting down to a level where it's not an economic crisis.
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08-12-2024, 01:41 PM | #37 |
Join Date: Oct 2007
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Re: Fantasy Currency Suggestions
I personally believe that the writer either meant copper or actually thought that bronze was an element (and not an alloy of copper and tin).
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08-12-2024, 01:43 PM | #38 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Fantasy Currency Suggestions
I'm pretty sure the author meant base metals. Which solves the problem because gold isn't a base metal.
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08-12-2024, 02:05 PM | #39 | |||
Join Date: Nov 2004
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Re: Fantasy Currency Suggestions
The point is that there's no reason coins aren't an option. As long as there's some means of distinguishing legitimate coins from fakes, coins will work as well in a society with plentiful metals as one with fewer metals, as we see in the industrial and postindustrial eras on earth.
, paut or similar may serve instead. And there's no requirement that it be something that rots, degrades, etc - it's something like distilled magic, after all, lasting forever until consumed wouldn't be a problem Quote:
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08-12-2024, 02:36 PM | #40 | |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Fantasy Currency Suggestions
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If you've got access to earth to stone, the amount of bronze you can produce is staggering. Its cheap enough you should probably making clay items and using a single casting of earth to stone for each item, because the costs of smithing start dwarfing the cost of the material. Now, If you've nerfed that spell or are using a system without it, bronze is probably still fine as money.
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