Silver Coins

History

Origin

The Adrakian Empire set forth the original Soplan standardized set of coinage - the Gold, the Silver, and Copper coinage called as a set "the Triad." For the Adrakians, silvers were the coin representation of Kaygys, the second of the Dragon-Gods of the Adrakian Pantheon who was also worshipped through the mercantile arts.

The silver coin has been the general standard across Soplas for trade, with copper being used to more exactly balance the trade and gold for deals involving larger amounts of silver. Some merchants dealt in Halves, or silver coins cut in half, and Slivers, or silver coins cut into quarters, in order to avoid dealing with copper pieces.

At the fall of the Empire, the various political powers retained the familiar Triad for their international economy until it overtook attemtps at a local-only economy. Each region mints their own coin, and may accept foreign at a different exchange rate than local.

Modern Use

Currently, Silver fell out of use due to the events of the Gold Flood devaluing it and the other coins of the Triad. It has been replaced with brass coins since.

If a Merchant accepts being paid in any of the triad, they generally inflate their prices to cover the potential loss in case the coins turn out to be counterfeit.

Traditions

Some regions break a silver from halves and slivers into nubs, or half a quarter piece. Others make a double-silver, or a coin made thicker than the average silver and valued at half a gold piece.

Related ethnicities

• Goltherine
• People of the Five Cities
• Thydian
• Tormians

Base Price

1 Silver = 10 Copper
10 Silver = 1 Gold or 100 Copper
15 Silver = 1 Brass (Inflated price if used in a trade)

Currencies

Appearance

Forgeries

To tell the difference between a true silver and a false silver, silver will not respond to a lodestone. The most common forgeries will have a stronger attraction to the lodestone than silver coins due to some regions using another metal for a coin's core.

Silver will also melt ice faster than any lookalike metal, though carrying around a piece of ice or casually creating ice to test coins is often a time consuming process.

Types

Most of the Triad were disc-shaped coins, a shape that was the standard long after the Adrakian Empire fell.

• The Five Cities
  • Coins minted by The Five Cities prior to the Gold Flood tended to be made of a cheap metal and given a thin coat of their named metal, leading to them weigh differently than the ones from elsewhere. This practice led to strained trade negotiations and a sharp exchange rate where one silver from nearly anywhere else had the value of seven to thirteen City silver coins. Silver coins from the Cities tended to be the easiest to create forgeries with this practice as well.
• Goltheris
  • While the brass coins have a hole to string coins together, Goltherine silver coins were stamped with their banking guild's crest and a serial number in an attempt to prevent forgeries. Unfortunately, forgeries resulted in the minters believing more batches of coins had been minted legitimately due to their numbers. The gold and copper coins, however, did not have a number due to their less common usage than the silver.
• Theydim
  • Prior to the Thydian Unification Wars, the silver coins of Theydim would mint with the Arle of the Arling. Locals generally knew two modes of minting - coins minted under the previous Arle, and coins minted under the current Arle. After the Unification Wars, silvers would be minted with the profile of High King Magnus the Red-Eyed until the Gold Flood. Theydim is and was a region where silvers would be broken into halves and quarters.

• The Kingdom of Tormyra
  • The Tormians minted their coins with the profile of the current ruler on the obverse and the triple-triangle of the individual Holy Trinity goddess on the reverse. Silvers had the multi-symbol of the goddess Farobia on the reverse - a trio of triangles, each bearing the primary symbol of the gods of Wind, Forest, and Shadow.
• ContestedLandArlingNameHere
  • This region followed Thydian minting, and never changed to include High King Magnus' profile. It was also the first region to remove the Triad from circulation as their Arle, Decidenamelater was the one to propose the shift to brass coinage during the Gold flood.
• ContestedLandRegionTormyra
  • This region recycled their molds for silver coins when they made their brass coins.