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It’s time to name the currency in Elemental.
The Random House team has come up with rigma which we like a lot.
An alternative would be gildars.
But if someone has a really cool name we’ll consider it.
Gildar sounds like someone was playing Final Fantasy and couldn't think of a unique name.
"Hey lets just add 'dar' on to 'gil', Gildar."
I'd vote no on Gildar.
Rigma is ok, makes me think of Drachma though.
The value of a currency is that it is rare and limited (even with our paper money, if there is no inflation). Therefore in history most countries used rare metals and named their currency after the metal, e.g. Gold Souverign. On the other hand on islands rare shells or stones were used and named likewise. So lets name the currency like
1 Gold Rigma is 100 Silver Rigmas is 10.000 Copper Rigmas
This makes the currency feeling known, and the name the suggested one - even if I personally dont like it (maybe later a later in an add-on or mod there may be currencies for every Player and an exchange with floating rates not only for resources but also for currencies ??? - 
- I like the game of Wall Street to much, and a Trader King should be able to rule like this too)
More Suggestions:
How about 12 currencies.
The most cultured/economic civilization causes other cities to use their coinage and the more cities that use their coinage the more economic gain that civ gets, while the other civs retain no bonus,
I second the florens. Not that it would happen. Rigma and gildars both sound wrong to me.
Minting your own coins would be wickedly cool, though I doubt developers will have time to implement it in any meaningful way. But if we talk about fiction in the world of elemental, different civilizations should definitely have different coins. It would be really strange if all the warring countries minted exactly the same type of coins.
At the very least each civ should store the name of it's coin in a string, so that people could mod it.
It wouldn't be strange if another empire valued other's coinage - if it was made from precious metal, like gold. We arn't really talking about buying a mars bar from england with a scotish tenner (a constant source of problems - its legal tender!) we are talking about empires shipping crates full off to each other to pay for marriages or betrayals or plain old sex (right? Riiight?).
How come the coins are named? It implies a standard which is kinda weird in a world that is rebuilding. Are people not trading in chicken bones and cowhorns?
Aractain, I am not talking about value. Of course any coin would have some value because of the precious metals in it. I am talking about minting coins.
Allowing somebody else to mint your coins is a very big no-no. They could basically decrease the ammount of gold in the coin, make a profit out of it and totally waste your economy in the process. You want control of your own currency, this is why many kings made their own. Not to mention that living on different continents and having ships as your fastest way of travel really does not help the creation of a world economy with a single currency.
What about "crowns" or "gold crowns"? I think it fits well in a fantasy game. However, drop the idea of "rigma" because it sounds horrible.
Some interesting stuff btw: Fictional currency in computer games ->
Gilda from the Dark Cloud series.
Guilders from Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle (a real currency formerly bore this name).
Like I've said gildar[s] sounds ok.
History 101: in olden times, when coins were supposed to be pure metal, each coin was supposed to have the exact same wight as her sisters. So let's say your supposedly pure gold coin weighted exactly 1 Solidus (1/72 of a Roman pound). Every merchant, when attempting to check if your coins are indeed pure gold, would weight them against a weightstone of 1 Solidus. Now, regardless of how you called your coin, the merchants (and therefore, everybody else) are going to call them Solidus.
Back to topic:
Giving the Sovreign the option to name his currency is pure fluff and an elegant solution. Think about it, it would even give a feeling of immersion to culture. When I attempt to negotiate a deal with a neighbor, it'll be a lot easier for me if he's using my coinage and not his own.
A fantasy book that dealt extensively with the subject was the Belgariad and Melorian series written by David Eddings. They had whole pages of the protagonist getting lectured about the relative values of coins (the Angarak gold coin is worth less than this other gold coin because it has less gold in it, hence it's reddish color, etc.).
luelle and luelli
or
ruelle and ruelli/ruelles
perhaps taking some medieval currency name or sticking to the standard gold or coins would just be easiest as there are alot of good ideas suggested here already
Peseta!
I could make many jokes about naming the gold piece as "Sun" and silver piece as "Moon" (no idea bout copper ones though). But only because I'm silly. Not that I couldn't make jokes about naming the gold piece as "Royal" and silver piece as "Noble" (whatever for copper...again).
We could always go the "Shield" route. Or the "Hawk" one, or the "Lion" one. Already mentioned, "Soul" is a good option too (if there is a soul concept in that world) and "Sovereign" seems fitting. I always liked "Doubloons". We also have "Dragon" or could use the Latin "Moneta". Or why not "Pound"? Gold Discs? Gold Triangles? (no need to be in the shape of discs, right?) Gold Pupils? (as in the eye thingy... silly english and its synonyms*) Gold Damsels? Gold Stones?
Why would be bad to call them just "Pieces"?
In any case, names are usually associated to an idea, whatever they have engraved on them or something related to weight/materials.
Rigma: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rigma
* Guy A: "Which is the correct tunnel to the exit of the labyrinth? Left or right?"
Guy B: "Left is right."
it be kinda neat and more relatics just like in real life if every empire had there own currnecy
and then players who make custom kingdoms could just name there own currency its just a naming convection after all all the kingdoms currnecys could be wortht he same unless there was some type of ecnomonical simlatuion built into game like fake stock market thing where some ecnomney are valued more then otheres based on size and resrouces that kingdom has.
but all in all it would be more intresting and more unqiue of a game to have diffrent names for the currnecy based on the kingdom empire you are playing, after all I would think every race would have there own language and would call the currnecy a diffrent name.
Presumably there was a currency before the cataclysm. Also we start to rebuild cities of thousands of people, doing things like mining, smithing, and adventuring. A barter economy wouldn't really work.
thats why i figured each race would have there own currnecy and it would be named little diffrently.
I would think that the currency of each race would depend on the resrtouces that country or race empire has at hand if a empire has alot of gold resrouces then i would thnk that that empire would probly use a gold standard for there currnecy.
if it was iorn there resrouce ber more based around there iorn exports or imports.
or maybe the empire lives in dry waste land then water probly be bit more important and resrouce that there currnecy be tied to be water.
or copper.
A single world-wide coinage can make sense, if it can be explained. In ancient times, countries all had different internal coinage, but trade and tribute were done in talents. THe conversion rate differed, so Egyptian talents were 160 coins, but Roman were 200 of their own, for example. I think a talent was the equivalent of 28kg (or so, there were three versions) of trade item, such as furs, grain, etc. Grain was a big one in those days.
When Carthage lost to Rome in the second punic war (the one with Hannibal), they had to pay 10s of thousands of talents in war reparations, and that plus the loss of major trade locations in Spain kept them from ever recovering.
Whatever name is picked is fine, but lets not turn this into a currency trading mini-game just to have multiple currencies.
that not copltly true in real world in asia east they used rice for example. it was bit diffrent based on location you where talking about.
some country valued somethings more so then otheres.
but even if you had the same currency they it still have diffrent names for it. meaning same thing just due to how it is spelled and pernounced.
your talking roman and the world aroudn rome but that is really small location in world there was still rissuain the eastern countrys and amircans and people where living int hose locations even while rome was around and all those locations did use diffrent markets and currnecys.
you can have one currnecy keep it simple have set value for that currnecy.
but still keep illisuon of spert crunnecys by naming it diffrently
but there will already be a in game trading mini game for ecominam with alliances and trade i would assume ?
resrouces and so forth bettween factions just like in civliation i would asume or any othere game like that ?
but you would think that in a post apolocyile detroyed burnt out world think nuckler holocust or fall out 3 style world setting which is what this is based on kinda, you think a resrouce based ecnomy would be way to go ?
trade and wars would be more so over water and resrouces like water or pasture land so forth then any other reasons.
also i would think that a fedual system cast system be more right for hte game lord has good land people want to live on good land to surrive instead of waste land, then they have to serve the lord of the land be that a call to arms or what ever.
you dont reall need a currnecy to build troops then but more people you take away form fields and crops less resrouces you have comming in to feed and take care of your people.
its simpltic and would make senesa nd would work.
Dicks. Then when you pull out your change purse it's actually a bag of gold and silver Dicks.
Well, turned out to be interesting post and replies. Oh and I hope you are jesting when saying you like rigma. Megma, schmegma.
Seems like bartering should be part of game. Maybe slavery. Or both, "My 2 Magnar warriors for your 3 Tarth maids?" or "Your Fire Shard for a Resoln mage?"
Some have mentioned making currency with the likeness of your Soverign. Nice touch.
I think you should have some original names for the currency. Gold, Silver, Copper while simple and easy to understand doesn't make for much immersion. I also agree with those who believe that the economy can be based on any commodity or representation. Time was mentioned earlier as a means of keeping track of income. That idea would have to be expanded on greatly, but has definite possibilities.
I also enjoyed Connaer's naming idea- "The destruction of all the old civilizations brought on by the war of the Titans took away the reason for money. So the survivors reverted to the bartering of old, and went back to weighing things to assure fair trade. As time went on some semblance of order appeared and new terms of the weight and weighing became the the root of new currencies. So as the ancient Greeks of our world created 'Stater' as a coin ( literally meaning 'weigh') I'd suggest that Skael be the new coin, as it refers to the scales used to weigh items of worth. This word is similar to the Old Norse word skål which meant a cup or shell used as a measurement"
Some other possible names for the currency-
Chit, Silver Urx, Heads
Rod, Light Soule, Resoln
Yit, Yith, Yithrii
Dagk, Menoir, Nar
Axes, Dripping Axes, Krax
Just some possible Empire currency names for now..
As a Princess Bride fan...I vote for Florin.
As a fan of the Roman empire, denarii wouldn't be bad either
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