The Poker Chip - needs rewrite
The Monetary Gamble
History:
When society collapsed during 'The Cataclysm' paper was burned, and the value of money was lost and ignored for barter, which took over as the preferred means of trade. During 'The Era of Survival' there were no governments, and without a government how could any one standard of trade or currency be established and enforced? The problem in creating a currency is that society must have some form of structure, backing, enforcement, or some common acceptance that said currency is valid. Many people tried to go back to the ways of "precious metals" metals such as gold and silver, but it simply came down to people wanting things like food, clothing, blankets, and what was left of the medicine. People would not have minded gold, but when your trying to not die of starvation precious metals just weren't as precious and simply didn't hold the value it once held. Instead, people simply scavenged, bartered, stole, or killed for whatever they wanted/needed, this was after all 'The Era of Survival'.
As the era came to an end small villages started to form societies once again. This however took longer than expected because of the 'The Nightmare's', no highly populated area would survive until they had the ability to defend themselves in groups first. Even after they did finally form small towns, all of the old forms of mass production and manufacturing were destroyed during 'The Cataclysm', so people had to start from scratch using near forgotten methods of production to save society and rebuild society.
These small towns formed small governments and eventually knew that bartering couldn't be relied upon forever and needed a form of currency. This is not to say that bartering isn't alive today, it very much is alive, but as societies grow the need for a currency becomes a reality. Coins, made of precious metals once again became popular because it was simply, the human thing to do to reach back in history and use what worked rather than invent something new.
Metallurgists not only became a profession and trade, they became rich as a result. They have the knowledge to determine purity and the differences between real gold and fake gold, they knew how to mint it into coins of precise weight, size and purity. The problem, was the coins of each society were always different and always contentious for people traveling from place to place.
The Creation:
It was around this time that an Elf by the name of Vaul'tya, who was traveling around the world, started encountering a problem. She was collecting coins of all kind because each society was using their own minted currency and wouldn't accept the value of others. The Metallurgists would exchange them for you, for a price of course. She did of course do as required but always kept a coin or two from each place to reflect her travels. Having lived over a thousand years she came to the conclusion that society was more so thrust into the dark ages than anything else, and she wanted to put a stop to the chaos and be able to trade anywhere and everywhere she went without paying a tax simply to have her money exchanged. Her journey was clear, she had to find something to resolve this problem, a currency that would be accepted anywhere she went.
Along her journey she always found these plastic circular disks of different colors that people used to gambling with. Having been around for a thousand years she knew these were poker chips, and then it struck her, the poker chip should become the currency of modern society. They were plentiful enough, yet generally ignored by the current society. Yes, some people would become rich as a result of finding a vault or a large stash of them, but that was inevitable and that money would eventually spread across the world. She made up her mind, and nobody was going to change it; if anything she would impose her will on others.
She eventually returned home with some friendly Mages in tow. It took some time and convincing, but for the greater good and to eliminate war and strife over such a small thing as the value of money the Changeling Courts voted for it despite some may have deemed a waste of Glamour. Vaul'tya's ritual sacrifice in conjunction with glamour and a powerful ritual from the Mages caused a global slumber and the world shaping event known as 'The Gamblers Dream'. From that day forward, the Poker Chip, was the worlds currency.
Poker Chip Denominations:
There do exist chips that exist outside the normal set of denominations. These rare coins are usually multi-colored and are accepted for their denoted values, if there is no designated it becomes treated more like pieces of art that people want to collect or trade for large sums of money. One could only be so lucky to find such an artifact.
White/Gray – 1
Red – 5
Blue – 10
Green – 25
Black – 100
Purple – 500
Yellow/Orange – 1,000
Brown – 5000
Manufacturing process
Before 'The Cataclysm' chips were manufactured in manufacturing planets. Since the world collapsed and manufacturing is no longer available, Poker Chips can no longer be produced. Many have tried to make fakes, but something never seem quite right and are spotted when people take the time to look. Matter Mages have tried to magically reproduce chips to get ahead, however it isn't so easy to create this item now that 'The Consensus has changed as a result of 'The Gamblers Dream'. Reality fights back and those who have succeeded and are capable of completing this feet don't feel the effort and the possible resulting backlash is worth the time and resources required to make them.
Item type
Currency & Deeds
Weight
Varying: 8-12g
Raw materials & Components
Chips vary, but are commonly made of some combination of: Clay, Plastic, and Ceramic.
Tools
Unknown
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