Lunar

The Lunar is the currency of the city of Elpaloz on the northwestern fringe of the Sea of Jars.

Description

The Lunar is a circular coin 0.9 inches in diameter, made from a billon of one part silver and three parts copper, which is stamped on one side with an crescent-moon device and on the other with the three ships which serve as the arms of Elpaloz. A small circular hole is drilled through the coins above the ships to facilitate the Elpalozian custom of keeping money on strings.

History

Popular legend suggests that the Lunar originated as a method of paying the Elpalozian cult of Ynglyas for their services to the city. The city's ship emblem on one side of the coin and the crescent moon - a long-established symbol of Ynglyas - are thought to represent the compact between the city and the clerics. The coins, once minted, were supposedly carried on ships to particular locations in the Sea of Jars where the clerics took measurements advantageous to the city's sea trade, before being absorbed back into the economy as the wealthy cult spent them in the local community. The hole supposedly served to demonstrate the fidelity of the coin by proving it was an alloy rather than a silver-plated copper, and the custom of keeping money on strings is said to have arisen as the populace took utilitarian advantage of this.
This story, if true, is unattested. What is known is that the Lunar fell out of favour in the second century BWR when Elpaloz increasingly came under the influence of the Chogyan Hegemony and the use of the Chogyan honour was increasingly enforced. The minting of new Lunars swiftly tailed off in the early part of the century and many of the coins were exported to Chogyos to be melted down for their bullion, turning those which left into curios. It is for this reason that strings of discs, worn around the neck or wrist, became thought of as old-fashioned in Elpaloz. Over time the Lnuars that remained became regarded as sigils of quiet endurance and proof of resilient concepts; for the century or so either side of the Wesmodian Reformation, to unspeakingly leave a Lunar where an acquaintance might find it - on their doorstep or windowsill, for example - was seen as a declaration of love.
The abeyance of the Lunar continued in the post-Wesmodian era as the Commercial Guilds succeeded in enforcing the Guild honour in place of the weakening Chogyan currency. In a move the Guilds decried, however, Elaploz opted to revive the Lunar in 258 AWR, and have now been using the reinstated coin for half a century.

Use

Lunars are considered fairly valuable coins in and around Elpaloz; they are also used as currency in Dyelpaloz and are respected in a number of smaller communities along the northern coast of the Sea of Jars. They are generally the largest unit of currency to see domestic use in the region. In Elpaloz the Lunar is traditionally worth 16 copper stars, though in smaller communities in the region the doubtful reputation of the star raises this value to as high as twenty or even 25 coppers. Paradoxically this tends to discourage the use of Lunars as few people living in villages have much call for a coin of such high value. As such the use of the coin has developed urbane and sophisticated connotations.
The tradition of leaving a Lunar somewhere it will be found by the object of one's affections as a declaration of love is still occasionally practised in Elpaloz, although in contemporary times it carries the additional air of being seen as charmingly old-fashioned. This is particularly the case if an antique Lunar from before the period of Chogyan dominance is employed. Such coins are noticeably distinct from the modern iteration (antique coins feature a crescent moon which is thinner and has longer, exaggerated points; on modern coins the moon is thicker with shorter points) and those keen on being seen as old-fashioned have been known to go to great lengths, and considerable expense, to locate them. This is often difficult as the Minters of Metal melted down many of the older coins for their bullion in the years after the guild's formation.