I was wondering if someone could please enlighten me on whether or not the following races create their own coinage (using gold, silver, electrum, copper and platinum) or just use that which is found, traded or taken with other groups. The groups that I am interested in are as follows:
Elves rule Celene, Sunndi, and the Duchy of Ulek. The elves of Celene and the Duchy of Ulek mint their own coins with elfy-sounding names like moonveil, suncrown, oakleaf, etc. Sunndi mints modified Aerdy coins.
The dwarves of the Principality of Ulek mint their own coins. Some of them have names like forge, anvil, and hammer. I would be very surprised if other dwarf nations like the Kingdom of the Iron Hills and Glorvardum didn't mint their own coins too.
Halflings live in human and demihuman realms, and wouldn't mint any of their own coins.
Orcs and other humanoids rule the Bone March, and just use standard coins of the Great Kingdom rather than minting their own.
The major humanoid tribes of the Pomarj, by contrast, do mint their own coins. However, there is no country-wide standard. Each tribe, city, and town mints its own without cooperating with the others.
I'm fairly confident the gnomes of the Kron Hills and Blemu Hills mint their own coins. It seems like they would.
To answer your question, yes, every race mentioned there except halflings mint coins in some areas.
In other areas, where it's just a few tribes or clans in the middle of another nation, no, probably not.
There aren't any "racial coins" as such. You don't pay for things in big shiny dwarven gold pieces or corroded orcish silvers. You pay for things with money from Principality of Ulek gold or Glorvardum gold or silver pieces from the Leprous Hand tribe or silver from the Rotting Eye tribe. Coin is minted by nations, not races. Dwarves from the Iron Hills don't use the same currency as dwarves from the Jotuns just because they're both dwarves. But yes, these races can mint coins.
Elves rule Celene, Sunndi, and the Duchy of Ulek. The elves of Celene and the Duchy of Ulek mint their own coins with elfy-sounding names like moonveil, suncrown, oakleaf, etc....
Heh. "Elfy" is now an official part of my vocabulary. For some reason, though, I think it should be spelled e-l-f-i-e with a little heart dotting the "i".
All lands, let alone races, would have their own currencies, and the relative worth of it might be subjective, depending upon the race or land in question.
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Let us make it fun, and introduce seigniorage into the mix. Seriously, I have thought of a general, wide ranging article on Greyhawk/Fantasy/Medieval economics, but it would be a bear.
I would also posit, that given the tone of Greyhawk, most economic exchanges are done by barter, and the reason adventurers are used to being paid in coin is that they are notably rootless people. A great way to defuse the Monty Hall campaign is to start paying them in pigs or bushels of wheat.
It wouldn't surprise me if there's not a fair amount of trade going on with coinage, but yeah, I suspect the average Joe barters instead of buys.
Assuming this is true, I also suspect the average merchant would use scales to establish the weight of coinage rather than simply accepting the face value of coins. It doesn't make much sense that every gp would have exactly the same amount of gold in it.
I also suspect the average merchant would use scales to establish the weight of coinage rather than simply accepting the face value of coins. It doesn't make much sense that every gp would have exactly the same amount of gold in it.
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