The Bank Gambit

The Root of All Evil

One of the oldest, most controversial, and most useful illusions Arcanists ever created gave birth to a bardic routine that redefined espionage, opening a theater of war far from any battlefield. The Bank Gambit is a routine available to bards involving the reproduction of physical currency. A bard takes a pebble, a single coin, a sheet of cheap parchment, or anything roughly the size and shape of a desired currency, and transform it into whatever denomination they desire. This could even use a form of currency with a smaller denomination.

Bards who work as spies can destabilize the economy of a nation just by living there. They could end a war early, or prevent wars from happening in the first place. The illusion could hold indefinitely, at least until the bard's death, which was a common tactic used by some to destabilize their rivals should their spy get caught and executed. While a rapid surge of counterfeit money is damaging to an economy, suddenly realizing the treasury has significantly less than it should is damaging as well, if revealed at the right time.

The spell is easy to learn on one's own, but using it heavily frowned upon. If you're not working to ruin an economy, you are setting back local merchants or other customers they have, resulting in confrontations that are neither parties fault. Nations have started adopting arcane techniques to make their money much more difficult to forge. Illusions require a fine eye for detail, and only the most skilled bards could use the spell and make it work in the present. Counterfeiting is a big deal to most nations in the present, and the history behind the spell has much to do with it.

Casting the spell

The bard reaches Attunement and then proceeds to visualize the end goal. This is usually done by using the intended form of currency as a reference. Eventually, when the bard is prepared for the transformation, they will cast their hand over the substitute and it will change before their eyes. Doing this in a place that is public, or in any situation that requires discretion makes it necessary to have skills in sleight of hand. Some bards choose to work under a tavern table, while others make the change in the privacy of their own home before leaving. Some bards are so skilled at using the spell they can cast it at the moment the currency is to be exchanged, having committed all the intricate elements of a currency to memory.

History

The creation of the spell occurred with a bard who, ironically, had the best of intentions. With mages, the illusion is a gag. It's a trick that could never hope to properly convince even the least perceptive officials. Bards are the ones who perfected it. Using the mage's illusion as a template, the nameless bard sought to assist a small freehold attacked on all sides by freeholds who were far bigger. The bard taught his routine to many who were loyal to his cause. The ring of bards traveled to the surrounding freeholds and did nothing more than live. By living in these freeholds, every trip to a market, tavern tab paid, and debt collected, they were able to funnel massive amounts of money into the economy. By the time anyone could determine something was awry, the damage was already done.

Much of the fake currency had made its way into the treasury, and was beyond any form of tracking. The governing bodies of these freeholds suffered massive inflation. Units of currency were being printed and minted as fast as they possibly could. This was bad economic advice given in hopes the increased amount of currency would offset the decrease in value. It is possible that this tactic could have worked since the inflation wasn't as bad as it could have been. The bards, still living within the freeholds they have ruined, chose to completely remove their illusions.

The nation found pebbles, useless coins, along with a series of strongly worded notes in their coffers, dooming their economy without anyone fully realizing it. So many resources were spent trying to stabilize the economy that when the counterfeit currency returned to its normal state, they had spent these resources doing nothing at all. The economy was still in shambles due to the fact that the currency they had recently created did nothing but replace the fake currency in the treasury. At this point, the small freehold became an economic powerhouse in the region, later forming into one of the biggest freeholds: The Freehold of Cordais.

Fun fact: Uses in Warfare

This is the first time economic warfare would be used in the world. It wouldn't be the last either. Cordais uses this tactic to great effect even in the present, despite the hardships that come with it. Some have taken creative liberties with this spell, using all manner of devious methods to cripple enemy nations without going to war with them.
Some have disguised parchment and coins tainted by disease, shrouding the contagion until the one who put it there is long gone. The denomination doesn't always change, and sometimes it isn't even fake currency. When the illusion is removed, plague can spread like wildfire as the currency exchanges hands over and over again.