MONEY
Each currency typically has a main currency unit and a fractional unit, often defined as one percent of the main unit says Colonel Kāni M. Tawam in his book Military Logistics and Strategic Performance, also known as The Bue Covered Book or The Blue Book.
Sweet as it may sound, it is a romanticization of reality in most cases, especially most cases that concern Acun... Obviously, Colonel definitely didn't write his book considering archaic city-states that don't even mint their own coins. Understandable but not acceptable. The man must have considered the off-planet civilizations with stupid superstitions too.
Jokes aside, in Tamag, due to not having easy access to their own currency, people use every metal or alloy as currency, as long as they can get their hands on it. They even use pure silver and gold, cuts, bars, and ingots despite those two metals being very soft in pure form, and would not hold up to the wear and tear that circulated currency experience.
Typically due to being harder and more durable alloys are always more in demand though. Copper alloys of silver and gold are always the most valuable, mainly named whities and yellowies by common folk respectively. Being minted outside of Tamag, they always hold the best exchange rates.
Due to the scepter and crown symbols on the tails side of the officially minted gold and silver coins, any gold and silver coin is called a crown and a scepter respectively regardless of its origin, or value. Practical but stupid... Especially when you know that you are always getting scammed one way or another. Colonel Tawam's bones must be aching in his grave...
Each okul minting their own coin despite the countries they belong aside, each guild member of The Smith's Guild being allowed to mint his or her own currency as long as it is not gold or silver is the biggest problem.
Pure copper coins of any age together with their tin and zinc double or triple alloys are the most common currency in Tamag. Despite the toxicity, aged copper coins with attractive patina are often considered more valuable.
The tin-lined coins are again the second most common currency, especially tin-lined copper however, there are even tin-lined iron and its alloys despite rusting very badly.
Steel coins are often considered one of the most valuable but less common due to convenience in warfare with nickel, and aluminum alloys as the least common, usually considered as fake silver despite being rarer and harder to mint, especially inside Tamag.
Overall, it is a total pandemonium. Most of the coin value is usually attributed to the minter reputation instead of the metal content on it together with collector value such as age, patina appeal, and the symbols on the coin. Gold coins are a partial exception to this rule due to being the rarest and hardest to fake.
Despite being the biggest erke desert in Acun, cultural reasons are the main reason for this situation in Tamag. Not being allowed to mint any coin despite having rich mines, force locals to exchange these precious metals with less precious ones which are minted by smiths outside and stocked by moneychangers and collectors only to be circulated on the market in extreme situations.
It is all about some belief regarding the curse of the rich, affiliated with the coins minted in the absence of erke... Typical superstitious stuff destroying the lives of common folk on a regular workday.
The whole debacle makes Tamag the biggest treasure trove as well as the most exploitive market with the highest risk of all Acun, decorating the dreams of pilgrims with riches and grandeur. It is so much that pilgrimage itself is less of a spiritual journey but more about fortuitous encounters and gaining merits at this point.
Did you strike gold and silver? You are the blessed of the gods and goddesses and we are going to treat you accordingly with riches and luxury.
Found artifacts of hidden knowledge? We are going to give you status so that you would share and teach them as you see fit to gain riches and luxury.
Didn't find anything at all? Then you belong to the Tamag with the rest of the damned and condemned. Better be dead or stay there until you die.
The whole gold and silver rush makes the already lawless and disadvantaged region far worse, with the rulers of the place being in cahoots with the outside powers profiting the most.
I am fairly sure about the off-the-book gold and silver trade in the disguise of divinely favored pilgrims. It is too lucrative to miss it with all these inside and outside organizations plotting against each other after all.
As it happens, the easiest way to exploit such a system is to just establish another organization. Even without any legal permission or reputation, mercenary work is always the easiest despite being the most dangerous. Moreover, it not only allows people to travel freely but also allows them to stay on demand even by the wealthiest and the most powerful.
I would never have thought such a thing a few years ago surely but in these circumstances, it is the best course of action. It not only allows me to travel inside but also outside of Tamag with good company and also seek without drawing too much attention.
God have mercy on those poor souls that have the misfortune to encounter me and mine.
Amen!
Essays
Agāh H. Ates
571 AR + 001 AC
