Currancy

## Currency in Terrinoth

The official currency of Terrinoth is the silver coin. The coins are similar in size and weight to those used in Lorimar, The Dunwarr Mountains, The Aymhelin, and far away Al-Kalim and are therefore perfect for trade with almost anywhere. The designs on them have varied over thousands of years but weather they depict the Daqan kings, as they did before the Second Darkness, or they show the capital city’s walls and lonely towers, as coins minted now do, they are all legal tender.

Most trading is done with silver. They are used across class and in every field of industry. When people quote prices and neglect to name the currency (e.g ‘That sword will cost ya’ two hundred’), they are talking about Silver Pieces. But silver is not the only coin in the kingdom.

### Bits

Hundreds of years there was a huge shift in the market in Archaut, and the value of several common items plummeted. Traders refused to pay a whole silver coin for some items, and sellers were unable to necessarily bring enough product to make up the value of a coin. Merchants came up with a solution.

Recently minted coins of the time had been minted with shallow grooves in the design in an attempt to thwart forgery. So merchants started breaking the coins up, and calling them ‘Bits’. That way they were able to pay for small value, low quantity goods without taking a loss rounding up to the value of a silver.

There was some initial confusion with the coins as there was no consensus as to exactly how many bits were worth a silver. After attempts to make the practice illegal the Barons ordered the mint to start officially producing bits in small quantities and set the value of 5 bits to 1 silver.

Bits are not accepted everywhere. They are only used for tiny transactions like cheep food, discounted accommodation or maybe to offer to panhandlers. If a vendor doesn’t sell anything with a cost listed in bits, they generally don’t accept bits. It is seen as incredibly rude to pay for goods valued in silver prices with bits (‘if you don’t have any silver; you can’t pay in bits’ is a common phrase). Nothing is ever listed as costing silver and bits, only ever one of the other.

### Gold

Gold is the currency of the Daqan kings. By law new gold coins could only be minted by direct order of the king. Ance since Terrinoth has not had a king for hundreds of years, no new coins have entered circulation (accept for coins from other kingdoms, which is uncommon) in a long time.

The rarity of gold coins made them a prestige item. Their value was tied to their rarity and as fewer coins were circulating every generation their value was almost always climbing. The Barons were restricted by the old laws of the king from making more, or even removing them from circulation, so eventually, in 1754 the Barons voted to fix the value of the gold coin for 100 years.

A gold coin is officially valued at 1000 silver. This is obviously a huge sum, so gold coins are rarely seen by anyone outside of Politics, large organisation or wealthy nobility. They tend to get exchanged for big deals (e.g buying real estate) or used as a compact way of transporting funds.

Sometimes a few coins show up in a forgotten tomb or crumbling dungeon (an event of some excitement), but this has become increasingly rare- and when they are found it usually just a small handful of them (or smaller).

Gold has a high enough value to attract attention. Any sufficiently vulnerably person known to be carrying even 1 gold coin is a target for thieves, con artists and assassins.