Earthdawn - Money and valuables

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The Value of Money
The settlement of Three Kaers is a commune, in general money has relatively little value unless you wish to buy personal items from the passing merchants or to venture off to the wider world.

Wages:

 * In the countryside an unskilled labourer can expect to make about 1 silver mark plus free room and board. (or 2-3 marks without the room and board)
 * In a city the same labourer might make 8-10 marks depending on demand but without the free accommodation.
 * A guide to a city might set you back 10-20 marks a day.
 * A basic blacksmith might charge 25 marks a day for their services not including materials.
 * A skilled weaponsmith adept could charge 30-60 marks depending on the complexity of the work.
 * A skilled and knowledgeable scribe or legal expert could charge 80 silver marks for a days work
 * A powerful wizard might charge 100 silver marks a day or more for their time.

Accommodation costs:

 * Poor - In a small village, staying at the local inn in the common room with a blanket or a large shared bed (5 pennies) and a couple of simple meals (6 pennies) and several glasses of cheap booze (4 pennies). Total: 1 Mark and 5 pennies.
 * Average - In a city, a room at a good merchant inn with a private room (3 marks), 3 average meals (3 marks) and 4 drinks of average ale (2 marks) Total: 8 marks.
 * Good - A Secure guild-inn with a bed, private bath and secure locks on doors and windows along one of the major trade-routes (12 marks), a bottle of fine imported wine (5 marks), a couple of mugs of dwarven stout (4 marks) and 3 good meals (9 marks) - Total: 30 marks (for non-guild members).
 * Luxury - In the capital city of Throal staying at the King's Beard, the finest hotel in the city costs around 55 marks a day not including the tips for the valet and features private baths heated by magic, light quartz illumination, armed security and a nigh impenetrable vault for the storage of valuables. Room service is available at any time. The evenings entertainment includes a sumptuous 9 course feast at the Mountainshadow's Rest (50 marks) a desert of Theran Uyglar - an imported desert served without a glass, held aloft by magic that changes flavours as you eat it (25 marks) and to finish off, a night at the Opera (50 marks for a box seat). - Total: 175 Marks.

Clothing:

 * Peasant clothes: 1-3 marks
 * Average Travellers clothes: 8-9 marks
 * Wealthy clothes: 40-50 marks

Other common things:

 * A cheap knife - 8 Pennies
 * A broadsword - 25 Marks
 * A 2-handed sward - 125 Marks
 * Leather armour - 10 Marks
 * A chain shirt - 180 Marks
 * Full plate - 3,000 Marks
 * A Dog - 30 Marks
 * A Riding Horse - 125 Marks
 * A fully trained Warhorse - 1500 Marks
 * The cheapest one-shot "magic" items - 50-100 Marks.
 * A Named Pattern item - 5,000+ Marks (but very rarely sold)

Money in Barsaive:
"All Silver flows from Throal" was a popular saying even before the Scourge. Throal was the provincial mint and made its own coins distinct from those of their Theran overlords.

Many Kaers still have these ancient coins, however their design has changed little.

In keeping with the principals of simplicity and rationality, all coins have a standardised weight and a distinctive appearance.

All currency in Throal is backed by the Silver standard.

The coffers of Throal swear to exchange any amount of legal currency for its equivalent amount of silver either in the form of coins or bars.

All coins except for the copper penny (which is half an ounce) weigh 1/10th of an ounce.

There are three main coins. And several rare coins (not commonly used as legal tender, they tend to be used to seal important deals or as symbolic gestures of tribute. Magicians and Weaponsmiths often use them for their raw magical power as ritual components or in forging exceptional items respectively) Different types of adepts can use these materials in various ways. However the primary benefit is for Elementalists and Weaponsmiths.
 * Copper Penny (1/10th of a silver Mark) - A 10-sided coin shows and hammer and pick on both sides.
 * Silver Mark (1/10th of an ounce of silver) - A 7-sided coin showing the founder of Throal in profile.
 * Gold Crown (10 silver marks) - A 9-sided coin shows the Throal mountains on one side and
 * Ring of Earth (50 silver marks) - 8-sided coin of True Earth.
 * Ring of Water (50 silver marks) - a round coin of True Water
 * Ring of Wood (100 silver marks) - an ever-changing shaped coin of True Wood.
 * Torc of FIre (150 silver marks) - a warm round coin of True Fire.
 * Torc of AIr (150 silver marks) - a malleable crystalline coin of True Air.
 * Throne of Oricalcum (500 silver marks) - the platonic form of gold. A perfect combination of the elements

By carefully working trace amounts of True elements into an item (such as a breastplate or weapon) a weaponsmith with the Forge Weapon or Forge Armour skill can imbue the element into an item. Illusionists often use True Air to give longevity to their illusions and True Fire to create light quartz. They can use true water and or wood to make long-lasting disguises over name-giver flesh. However they have little use for True Earth.
 * True Earth can make something more resistant to damage, sharper or heavier depending on the techniques used.
 * True Water can be used to make otherwise inflexible things flexible and it can be powdered to create large quantities of drinking water in an emergency.
 * True Wood allows otherwise inanimate objects to "heal" over time, it can also make armour that "blends" into woodland environments.
 * True AIr makes things impossibly light or it can protect from heat if worked into an armour. This is also the key component for creating airships and can be powdered to allow breathing underwater for a short time.
 * True Fire in an armour can protect from cold indefinitely or in a weapon it can make it burst into (largely cosmetic) flame. True fire can be carefully mixed with other volatile compounds to create a potent explosive. a single Torc of fire can make 15 shots of powder for a fire cannon. But its volatility makes it useless for anything smaller than a ship.

Elementalists use True Elements in negotiations with the various elemental spirits. They can also use True elements to make some spells of the relevant element last significantly longer than normal.

Nethermancers can use True Water to aid in opening portals to the Astral and True air can be used to make spirits visible to all with the correct rituals.

Wizards don't use True elements, but make extensive use of Oricalcum when it becomes available.
 * Throne of Oricalcum (500 silver marks)
 * Oricalcum is rare in the world, and only forms naturally in amongst large deposits of gold, where significant natural forces meet with three or more elements (at the bottom of a boiling lake in the caldera of an active volcano for example or where a powerful forest fire is hit by a natural tornado)
 * It can be forged by the rare Weaponsmith Adept that studied how to distil gold into its platonic form (although the amount of gold you need to destroy in the process does not make this a profitable endeavour)
 * Normal people can create Oricalcum by combining a coins worth of each of the 5 elements in a carefully controlled manner to make a single coins worth of Oricalcum.

Theran Currency
Theran Currency is a bit of a taboo in Throal-friendly territories. Moneylenders can charge heavy mark-ups for changing the currencies from one to another. You can generally only get 75% of the value of a Theran gold Florin or a Silver Mark. Although you can sometimes get better exchange rates for silver in Throal and gold in Theran territories.

Thera instead uses the Gold standard Its currency all has a standardised shape and design The Imperial Florin (a golden elipse bearing a face on one side and a sunburst on the other) with script around the edge on one side promising a life of slavery to any who adulterate the coins. They have silver coins (The Orrus) as well, but they do not have an equivalent to the copper penny (They technically have one called the Dab but it is more expensive to mint than the value of the metal, so it is only used for ceremonial or symbolic reasons). Their versions of Rings of water are salt-water rather than fresh and they have a number of other small differences as well. They sometimes have gems of a standardised cut that are recognised as being equivalent to currency for very large denominations, but these are rare.

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