Coinage system

From Channel Cities

Channel Cities and World of Ærnth- World Economics

This system uses coins of three different types of metals (with a fourth type turning up on rare occasions when high value needs to be traded): Copper, Silver, Gold, and on rare occasions Platinum. These metals (as most people know) are fairly resistant to corrosion (see notes below). Note that copper is much less resistant and tends to oxidize which results in a green corrosion, while silver is more resistant, but will still tarnish over time, giving it a dull grey look. However compared to many of the other metals that were useable under such middle age technology, they are fairly durable.

If you look at references of the values of these metals over the years they are more than a single magnitude of value in difference. For example as of the day of the writing of this document the difference in values of Gold is approximately 70 times the value Silver per same mass, while Silver has a value that is roughly 100x that of Copper for the same mass of material. It must be realized that this is the value difference of the industrialized nations of the world who trade these commodities on a worldwide basis; so historical values will vary greatly from the above values. However if you look at these historical values they are generally closer to the above values than the value differences commonly seen within most RPG’s.

Using a difference of value of the 1:100 magnitude as I am presenting here however presents other problems such as how to deal with paying for something using this coinage system that is half way between the value of any of the two coin types. However I have found a way to work around this problem that also adds to the historical feel of using this coinage system. What I propose is to not only have Gold, Silver, and Copper coins, but also “pieces” which equate to taking a coin of whatever type and then cutting it into smaller pieces. There have been several cultures around the world throughout history that have used this very technique. The next question involves how to cut them. Gold, Silver, and Copper are all three fairly soft metals and are thus easier to “cut” into smaller pieces than metals like Iron. The easiest sizes to cut these round coins into are halves, quarters, or eighths. Cutting them into pieces smaller than eighths starts to get difficult without somewhat precise tools, while with a dagger and a little bit of force the above cuts are not too difficult.

Using this technique, each of these 1/8th pieces have a value of 1/8 of the coin they were cut from, or if you cut a coin into a one-quarter portion, then it has a ¼ value of the base coin. The only conversion within the entire system that is not extremely simple is the conversion from a smaller full coin type to pieces of a larger denomination coin. This conversion works out to 12.5 coins of the smaller type to a piece of the next largest coin denomination. Thus it would take 12 and a half Copper Coins (or 12 Copper Coins and 4 Copper Pieces) to equal a single Silver Piece (1/8 of a Silver Coin).

Within the World of Ærnth setting each of the full coins is of a 1/2 ounce weight, thus making each coin piece 1/16 of an ounce. However each GM should decide for themselves what the base weight of each coin within their system weighs. These weights can also be adjusted to alter the base values of the metals from which they are made if desired. For example if you feel that a ratio of 1:100 between equal weights of Silver and Copper is too high then consider using 1 ounce Copper Coins and ½ ounce Silver Coins. This results in the value of the metals being altered and the value of the coins remaining the same since each Copper coin has twice as much mass as a Silver coin.

One other concept to keep in mind is that from one political entity to the next there will be differences between coins (always differences in the image or symbols stamped on them) and sometimes differences in mass).

The following chart provides rough conversions between this system and the Rolemaster system. I had also wanted to provide a conversion to the d20 system, but the d20 system’s coinage system is so messed up and out of kilter that it is not worth the effort to do so. Any system that has a 1:10 value from copper to silver and the same from silver to gold can not accurately be used for comparing values in an even semi-realistic way due to being off by nearly an entire order of magnitude.

Follow this link to see a fairly extensive price list for most items (if you happen to see something missing from the list, let us know and we will add it).

World of Ærnth Coinage

Coin Type	Weight (oz)	Relative Value	RM/d20 equivalents
Copper Piece –or- “Penny” (p)	1/16	8 cp = 1 cc –or- 8 pennies = 1 pence	= 3 cp (d20)
Copper Coin –or- “Pence” (P)	1/2	12 ½ cc = 1 sp -or- 12 ½ pence = 1 shilling	= 1 cp (RM)
Silver Piece –or- “Shilling” (s)	1/16	8 sp = 1 sc -or- 8 shillings = 1 sterling	= 3gp (d20)
Silver Coin –or- “Sterling” (S)	1/2	12 ½ sc = 1 gp -or- 12 ½ sterling = 1 mark	= 1 sp (RM)
Gold Piece –or- “Mark” (m)	1/16	8 gp = 1 gc -or- 8 marks = 1 crown	= 30 pp (d20)
Gold Coin –or- “Crown” (C)	1/2	12 ½ gc = 1 pp -or- 12 ½ crowns = 1 noble	=240 pp (d20)
Platinum Piece –or- “Noble” (N)	1/16	8 pp = 1 pc -or- 8 nobles = 1 royal	=125 gp (RM)
Platinum Coin –or- “Royal” (R)	1/2	8 pp = 1 pc -or- 8 nobles = 1 royal