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[mangulwort]

Yes we know that all races use gold copper and silver for currency but thats boring! Why dont elves use wood tokens or Dwarves use brass nuggets? Also what is the currency called? We all call it "Dwarf bucks" but the dwarves themselves whould call it something diffrent. What do you think chould be improved on with currency?

[Loud Whispers]

We all call it "Dwarf bucks"

Never have I called it nor heard it called Dwarf Bucks before. Everyone knows it's pronounced ☼.

[i2amroy]

Yes we know that all races use gold copper and silver for currency but thats boring! Why dont elves use wood tokens or Dwarves use brass nuggets? Also what is the currency called? We all call it "Dwarf bucks" but the dwarves themselves whould call it something diffrent. What do you think chould be improved on with currency?

Right now with modding you can control both what metals are used by each race for their coins and their respective values. It's just that in vanilla all of the races have:

Code: [Select]

[CURRENCY:COPPER:1]
[CURRENCY:SILVER:5]
[CURRENCY:GOLD:15]Meaning that the three types of coins they use are copper, silver, and gold with values of 1, 5, and 15 respectively instead of something like this:

Code: [Select]

[CURRENCY:GOLD:2]
[CURRENCY:IRON:7]
[CURRENCY:PEWTER_LAY:9]
[CURRENCY:BRONZE:25]Which would give them coins of gold, iron, lay pewter, and bronze with values of 2, 7, 9, and 25 respectively.

(Wood tokens would still be out of reach though, unless you created a "wood" metal and had them use that.)

[Manveru Taurënér]

Things still have to make sense, there's no way a dwarf would ever accept a piece of wood as payment, and carrying around nuggets would be quite inconvenient. Metal coins appeared for a reason. They're small and easy to carry and store, they can be melted down and actually used if need be and everyone wants precious metals so they can be used as payment wherever pretty much. Elves might be the special case out of the bunch of DF races, but they'd still have to adhere to the trading policies of dwarves and humans if they wanted to trade with them pretty much. While some kind of wood token might be used for trading within the elven community they wouldn't really work outside of it. Besides, those hippie elves might not even use a currency for all we know ;P

[i2amroy]

While some kind of wood token might be used for trading within the elven community they wouldn't really work outside of it. Besides, those hippie elves might not even use a currency for all we know ;P

Right now none of the currencies function outside of their respective entities. Any currency that is taken beyond the borders of an entity is only worth it's material value (which is usually very small) with any other entity's traders. Even if both entities had [CURRENCY:GOLD:15] trying to use gold coins from one civilization in another won't work and they will only be worth about 1-2 value instead of 15.

[Loud Whispers]

Elves might be the special case out of the bunch of DF races, but they'd still have to adhere to the trading policies of dwarves and humans if they wanted to trade with them pretty much.

Or they just choose to not have money, instead preferring to be a textiles based bartering civilization. Rope reed and alcohol is the only thing they'll ever need to trade.

[Jetman123]

Coinage is generally valuable because it is made of valuable materials. Anyone can go out and chop a tree (or, in the elves case, shape a wooden coin), and so the currency is not valuable - massive inflation would ensue as instead of working, people would spend time making coins instead, meaning that everything costs more, which means that people make more coins. Which soon means that you need a billion wooden coins to buy anything, meaning that you have to spend all of your time making coins, and everyone starves because nobody has any time for important things like farming. It's about the same as trading with leaves.

Now, if you're using wooden "bank notes" instead, sure, but that would require a bank to back the currency of the wooden coin, being able to cash it in. The elves are not nearly so organized a society. No, it seems far more appropriate for them to be barterers, like most folks were in history.

Brass is easy to shape and looks impressive but isn't particularily uncommon, so it's not of particular use as currency. Copper, silver and gold are all valuable metals that are extremely easy to work with, and as such they are highly prized, and that's why they're used as coinage.

[mangulwort]

I dont think that the currency is bad, I just think that some races whould use something diffrent. I also thought is was strange that currency doesint have a name. one of my favorite things (for some reason) about fantasy worlds is the diffrent names for money. (Beri, Dollarpounds,  Galleons, Copper Stars,
Woolongs and Septims). I think it whould be cool to come up with names for dwarven money, or if there was a currency name generator in game.

[Loud Whispers]

Coinage is generally valuable because it is made of valuable materials. Anyone can go out and chop a tree (or, in the elves case, shape a wooden coin), and so the currency is not valuable - massive inflation would ensue as instead of working, people would spend time making coins instead, meaning that everything costs more, which means that people make more coins. Which soon means that you need a billion wooden coins to buy anything, meaning that you have to spend all of your time making coins, and everyone starves because nobody has any time for important things like farming. It's about the same as trading with leaves.

Now, if you're using wooden "bank notes" instead, sure, but that would require a bank to back the currency of the wooden coin, being able to cash it in. The elves are not nearly so organized a society. No, it seems far more appropriate for them to be barterers, like most folks were in history.

Calm down dear it's only a commercial!

Well, commercialism to be straight. But the end of money doesn't result in the end of the world, this is just the result of a century of bad dogmas and the idea that money makes the world go round.
Just look at Sparta; they changed their currency to iron dipped in vinegar knowing it would devalue their money. They thrived pretty well. The only way you would have people starving to death because they care more about money than nutrition would be if they lived in a capitalistic society, and seeing as this is a fantasy world simulator, we have no reason to assume they (if any at all) live in capitalistic civilizations.

[King Mir]

Money needs to have a level of scarcity, so wooden tokens would not due the trick; anyone can make wooden tokens.

But yeah, elves using metal for coinage, when they object to metal working is kinda strange. I'm not sure what they would use. Rare stone? They don't mine much. Living things like plants are a poor store of value, because they die and wither. It needs to be something without quality too. Yet money is very useful, so they would probably have something.

[Mr S]

You're overlooking the obvious means of transferring wealth for pre-metalwork societies.  Mussel Shells!!

Pay the Hippies in piles of Mussel shells, then let them leave (conveniently passing by your necromancer bunker).

[Loud Whispers]

/People arguing that a civilization that doesn't use money, doesn't trade with money nor value money needs money because money carries importance which they do not hold.

[EnigmaticHat]

Ah... guys?  The coins aren't just generic discs.  They have designs specific to the site they were created in, likely in a pattern that would be difficult to fake and that only a few people know how to make well.  That means most people won't be able to make coins, regardless of whether its wood or metal.  In real life wooden coins would be easier to counterfeit, but elven wooden coins would probably be made by convincing trees to produce wood coins (however they do that for their other wooden products), likely in patterns that would be impossible to imitate through carving.

[Alkhemia]

Or out of some magic wood that only they can make or something

[itisnotlogical]

I imagine dwarves are good enough with metal to create a coin made from certain percentages of metals. For example, Durpurpelsor makes coins with 90% gold, 7% copper and 3% brass, while Amost Tomud makes them with 94% gold and 6% tin. That way, in case of a serious forgery, they can melt the coins down to determine their authenticity.

Not represented in gameplay of course, but that makes sense to me.