[Narth 2000:  Money]
[Narth 2000, the (former) eWorld Online GURPS Campaign]
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One of the few surviving relics of the pre-Devastor period is found in the monetary systems of the Jadiwan continent. Most human nations employ a variant on the system that was used almost universally hundreds of years ago. It is a decimal system that was once based on coin weights, but modern economics has retained only the relationship between the basic values.

The names of the coins may vary, but the proportions are generally the same:

100 copper = 1 silver
10 silver = 1 gold

(The silver is equal to ten standard GURPS dollars.)

This is a simplification, though. Most nations have a number of different (and frequently confusing) denominations. As an example, the Kironar Empire uses the following:

Kironese Coinage

Coin Value GURPS $ Value
penny 1 copper $0.10
bit 10 copper $1.00
duc 25 copper $2.50
half-throne 50 copper $5.00
throne 1 silver $10.00
mark 5 silver $50.00
angel 1 gold $100.00
crown 5 gold $500.00

In addition to its coinage, the Empire also has a system of paper scrip, with bills ranging from 1 throne to 100 crowns and higher.

Other nations have a slightly less baroque system, using coins for all values up to 1 silver, and paper scrip for 1 silver and up. Others use no paper whatsoever.

The elven nations have their own currency, based solely on silver, as copper and gold are too useful for both decorative work and for electrical contacts to waste as money. (The elves also refuse to issue paper money, and may have the most solid economy on the continent.)

Little is known about dwarven currency, as they use barter for all outside trade; visitors to Bukkaazmur have reported that among themselves the dwarves use beautifully-carved stone tablets as a medium of exchange, but that the tablets were not marked with any denominations, were not actually traded, and that their value often seemed arbitrary or even symbolic.

The orcish nation of Arakund has only recently implemented a national currency, based also on a gold standard but using enamelled copper plates.

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1999, by Robert
M. Schroeck.
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