Coin press

[Just A Bill]

I am not sure I see the use for coins in Cantr. In real life, telling the exact weight and composition(purity) of a metal was a difficult and expensive task. Scales were required as to weight and an assayer(sp) required chemicals and a small sample of the metal, which was consumed I believe to determine purity. Early coins were a simple way to know that you were getting a certain amount of a certain metal In Cantr Iron is Iron, Gold is Gold, and you know how much of it you have down to the gram.

That being said, eventually coins came to have value above and beyond the value of the metal used. This generally requires a strong government to back the currrency. In other words agree to take coins and give a fixed amount of something else for it. Eventually IRL, people assumed money had value and the backing could be removed.

I do have one question, can coins be melted down? I saw a thread on recycling objects, and this would be a great place to start.

[The Sociologist]

I am not sure I see the use for coins in Cantr. In real life, telling the exact weight and composition(purity) of a metal was a difficult and expensive task. Scales were required as to weight and an assayer(sp) required chemicals and a small sample of the metal, which was consumed I believe to determine purity. Early coins were a simple way to know that you were getting a certain amount of a certain metal In Cantr Iron is Iron, Gold is Gold, and you know how much of it you have down to the gram.

That being said, eventually coins came to have value above and beyond the value of the metal used. This generally requires a strong government to back the currrency. In other words agree to take coins and give a fixed amount of something else for it. Eventually IRL, people assumed money had value and the backing could be removed.

I do have one question, can coins be melted down? I saw a thread on recycling objects, and this would be a great place to start.

Thanks for an excellent post, which pretty much summed eveything up. Yes, if Cantr coins were made of iron and could be melted down back into iron, then currency might stand a chance. But in the current economic conditions of Cantr, conditions which are rapidly going backwards by the way, I don't see much chance.

A more sophisticated currency might have stood a chance in some place like the old Lad Empire, but my newpawn spy reports about four people there, mainly ruminating over former glories.

[julie2]

By the way, I'd noticed that Qillanoi has some sort of currency system, but since none of my characters have been there yet (just read flyers here and there) I haven't had a chance to find out how it works. Could somebody enlighten me?

[Antichrist_Online]

I have a character building one to act as a book keeping machine of sorts, the coins will be given to the outposts and be worth goods from the main trader. Preventing con artists from saying the outpost said they could have such and such for doing some work. It will allow standardisation of his organisation.

[Agar]

Notes = Note thieves

Loose Goods = Pirates

Coins = Bank Robbers!!!

[Nick]

Yeah, but I'm sure you could put a slight difference in a coin press name to make a counterfeit look decent. An extra space somewhere, for instance.

[swymir]

Personally I'm hoping it works like keys. Where each coin is just given an ID number that is identical to the press. Counterfeiting would be useless in Cantr as it would require to much time and resources to hardly be worth it. The only time it would be worth it is if the value of the coin is going ot be worth more then what it took to create it.

[The Industriallist]

Personally I'm hoping it works like keys. Where each coin is just given an ID number that is identical to the press. Counterfeiting would be useless in Cantr as it would require to much time and resources to hardly be worth it. The only time it would be worth it is if the value of the coin is going ot be worth more then what it took to create it.

If not no one would have much interest in making them...

I've got to say, this isn't nearly as useful as I used to think it would be. Considering how this'll work I would say you can make a better, cheaper, and easier to carry monetary form based on envelopes...think checking.

[Where are all the monkeys]

Do you think you can choose which metal to use? So you know a gold coni would be worth more than a silver one, and silver worth more than iron or whatever. Also, I wonder if coins degrade, as this would add value to gold and silver coins, as they shouldent corrode, wheras iron ones would.

[The Industriallist]

Do you think you can choose which metal to use? So you know a gold coni would be worth more than a silver one, and silver worth more than iron or whatever. Also, I wonder if coins degrade, as this would add value to gold and silver coins, as they shouldent corrode, wheras iron ones would.

...um...you've got your value a little mixed up...most people would be a lot more interested in N grams of iron than N grams of silver or gold. A lot more. Basically, anyone who didn't stop being part of the economy before the progressive disabling of production started needs all the iron they can get, and probably can't afford to waste time on gold...

[Nick]

Oh and... coins better be stackable.


for x = 1 to 100
You see a man in his twenties giving a gold coin to a man in his thirties.
loop x

[Lumin]

I just asked about meltable coins in another thread before reading this. I don't see coins really taking off otherwise, because who's going to waste iron (or steel) by turning it into a bunch of tiny useless items? You might as well trade or pay employees in straight metal, it's more versatile and less work to make, while still being valuable in just about anyplace you go. Though I could see coins possibly taking on a symbolic value.

(Actually, it'd be nice if you could melt down iron jewelery or other luxury items too...)