The Society of Erezi

[ephemeralstability]

Currency

The monetary system used in Erezi evolved from the Calanzian system, which was cunningly devised to stop forgery, and based on the overriding principle in scientific thought at the time: geometry. Unfortunately the system requires highly skilled minters who have training in the art of geometry and gem-cutting.

There are five different coins:

The miro, a tetrahedron about a centimetre in height which is worth very little. Ten mirii might buy you a loaf of bread. The material for these coins is either copper or bronze. A beggar might be lucky to reap more than five mirii in a day.

The ricento, a cube, also only a centimetre in height, worth fifty mirii. They are made of bronze and engraved with the stamp of the minters' guild. A manual labourer might earn three ricento a week.

The cedito, an octahedron of bronze, worth between four and five hundred mirii depending on its condition. Typically one cedito will buy a pair of shoes or a book. A shopkeeper might earn one cedito a week.

The librento, a dodecahedron of silver, worth between twenty and fifty of the highest valued ceditii. These only enter into the hands of the most opulent middle classes: the restauranteurs and scribes, the skilled craftsmen who might charge five librentii for carving a bed or ten for a violin.

The talento, an icosahedron, also of silver. The extreme difficulty in crafting one of these is the key to stopping forgery. They are only owned by the merchants in their palaces, and are worth hundreds of librentii.

The Inscribed Solids

This system, using what we would call the Platonic solids (known to the Erezians as the "inscribed solids") developed in the early days of the Kingdom Calanz, though only three of the solids had then been discovered. The renowned genius Cardo Massaglia discovered the further shapes in 1073, as he (in his own words) "awoke from a dream of utmost beauty. I had been wandering in a fresh and springtime forest towards the water's edge when I came upon a floating body, a twelve-sided 'cube'. As I reached out to touch it, it seemed to shatter, and I was overcome with an appalling feeling. Only after I saw what it had become did I appreciate it with awe. Now there floated a twenty-sided shape and I could conceive of it." He wrote this in his diary the nest morning and drew the bodies he had seen, demonstrating that they could be inscribed inside one another just as the cube and octahedron.

[Strolen]

Interesting concept. It would probably make more sense to make the cheapest currency maybe just a flat rectangle piece of copper with stamp on it and then start increasing its complexity and value. Then the flat piece will be like pennies, nobody wants them.

I could see the coing being a little bit uncomfortable in a pocket. Would have to go in a bag. All those sharp edges....hmmmm. All those sharp edges. That miro might be used if you sharpened up the edges and dumped them behind you. Soft metal wouldn't take much to sharpen them to a pretty good point. Not worth much either. hmmm

[CaptainPenguin]

I like it.
It's more original than simply "copper", "gold", "platinum".

[MoonHunter]

Given the unweildiness of the upper currancies, you might get bank notes, personal cheques, and guild marks.  It would go with the vaguely Italian theme you have going here and be a natural extension.  Italian currency was unwieldy. Combine that with the amounts used in trade, and paper currency/ checks become an option.  Require guild or city/state stamps on them, and you begin to have money as we know it.

[ephemeralstability]

Indeed, but the idea is to have currency unlike that with which we are familiar in order to give the world a unique feeling. Having bank notes to replace the more complicatedly shaped coins would defeat the purpose of having them in the first place: to make wealth and riches something difficult to achieve and ostentatiously displayed when they have been achieved.

ephe!

[Cheka Man]

How would the coins be carried? And would thick gloves be needed to handle the less common ones or do they all have blunt edges?

[CaptainPenguin]

BUMP! Continue this, Eph. You never got further than currency.

[Nobody]

Yeah, but the entire idea here is that the value of the material has no worth. Well that is completely pointless. Why would a minter not simply quite and make his own money.

Printing presses work because of the shear amount of money you can produce, combined with the relative difficulty in doing so. You cannot make more than one hundred dollars at a time, and that amount of money would be useless.

But the original system is based on the idea that rarety brings value and that the amount of, say gold, is a finite amount, therefore it has certain intrinsic value.

Lets look at diamonds as an example of the currency that you refere to. The intricacy of the cut defines the price of the diamond. However, it is based on a retail system. A forger for example would then have to sell the diamonds as well as produce them.  Not much money to be made there. It it much more effective to have a group sell them. If everybody sells them, then the money gets spread out over many people. Enough to make a living, but not enough to be worth criminal activity. However, if diamonds WERE money, then suddenly no selling is required. Thats instant cash. You could create a ten-thousand dollar bill every day. Now, what would stop a minter from simply quiting his job and minting fakes that are identicle to the real thing.

Unless the value of the item is not worth the time it takes to make them, which again requires a printing press of some sort.

The solution. An ancient printing press of these items. Magical in nature perhaps. Suddenly, that changes everything. Now you can actually mass produce them to the point where a forger would barely make a living making such an item. It would be so complex that it would take a week to make, but instead of being worth a thousand gold, it would be worth much, much less.