Nuclear Beasts

Coinage

Okay... my original idea that the stamp was important doesn't work with Shaping magic... a good mage could counterfeit stuff way too easily.

So, to have a secure currency, they would have had to make them out of specific metals. Let's see...

Four metals: copper, silver, gold and white gold.
Two sizes: small and large (large being 5x the weight of the small and 5x the value).

Copper = 1
Lg. Copper = 5
Silver = 10
Lg. Silver = 50
Gold = 100
Lg. Gold = 500
White Gold = 1000
Lg. White Gold = 5000

That would work, but is probably too big of a difference. If commoners get a copper for about an hour's work, then a copper would be about $5 by modern American standards... A lg. white gold coin would be $25,000. Yeah, that's a bit too much.

Okay, assume that Silver & White Gold are the same thing... they're both whitish, right?

Maybe drop the size diff...

Copper = 1 ($5)
Silver = 5 ($25)
Gold = 25 ($125)
White Gold = 125 ($630)

Better... Let's go with a silver as what you get paid for a normal day's work... 10 coppers. Gold is a week's work. White Gold is a month's work.

Tokens = .1 to .5 (pocket change)
Copper = 1 ($5)
Silver = 10 ($50)
Gold = 50 ($250)
White Gold = 200 ($1000)

It's illegal for anyone other than a white or royal mouse to own Imperials (white gold coins). They are strictly reserved for the nobility. Lower classes who manage to get their hands on them are generally stuck selling them to an upperclass moneychanger who will generally only pay as though they were gold coins.

Hm.

Tokens = .1 to .5 (basically $5 to $25, .1 being a typical hourly wage]
Copper = 1 ($50) [1 day's wages]
Silver = 7 ($350) [1 week's wages]
Gold = 30 ($1500) [1 month's wages]
White Gold = 360 ($18,000) [1 year's wages]

As a general rule, you get an income equal to 1/100th of your total money spent on investments.

So, a peasant who manages to save up 100 coppers could buy a partial share in some store or large farm and net about a copper a day. Yeesh, that's way too good. That's about a... let's see... 365 coppers per year on an investment of 100 coppers... about a 365% interest rate. A realistic interest rate would be closer to 5-10%. I think I could see saying that for every 5000 coppers you invest, you get 1 copper back per day.

Posted by Kiz at August 26, 2005 04:16 PM