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[King Mir]

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.

Coins are not a fiat currency though. Having specific designs means you can authenticate the weight and composition of a coin without a scale, but for a flegling nation, declaring a currency is not enough to make people trust it. People would much rather store their wealth in tangable stuff than paper money, if the authority printing the money is in danger of being overrun by invaders.

The trees that elves grow stuff from are not rare. In every town there is at least one elf who's proicent at growing stuff from trees, if they aren't all. Wood, even grown wood, is not a scarse resource in eleven society. It does have intrinsic value, to make anyone trust it in the event of the demise of the issueing authority. 

[Urist_McDrowner]

Now here's what I don't get. How come a Siege of Knives gold coin isn't worth as much in Silence of Fortresses as a Silence of Fortresses gold coin is, and vice versa? The whole reason those coins have value is their material.

[Jetman123]

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.

Yes, but who is backing the value of those marks? Who creates and updates those marks to avoid counterfieting? Either a bank or the government, someone who can actually guarantee that you can exchange your little coin with the funny mark for something valuable like food or the like. If people don't believe a currency has any value (because nobody backs it), it's only as valuable as the metals that make it up.

[Broken]

Now here's what I don't get. How come a Siege of Knives gold coin isn't worth as much in Silence of Fortresses as a Silence of Fortresses gold coin is, and vice versa? The whole reason those coins have value is their material.

Actually, No. In DF The value of coins, even gold coins, come from the entity, not the material. This is caused by the low value
of metals. Note that gold is only worth 30 times as any rock.

[King Mir]

Now here's what I don't get. How come a Siege of Knives gold coin isn't worth as much in Silence of Fortresses as a Silence of Fortresses gold coin is, and vice versa? The whole reason those coins have value is their material.

Merchants may be reluctant to deal with foreign coin of unknown dimension and purity, and would value it less than local coin. Probably not significantly less though.

[Alkhemia]

I know I would not want to be payed in Zimbabwean dollar for example if I was trading with someone 

[King Mir]

The Zimbabwean dollar is a fiat currency though, not backed by a gold or or other metal standard. Gold bullion sold in Zimbabwea is as good as gold bullion sold wherever you are.

[Alkhemia]

The Zimbabwean dollar is a fiat currency though, not backed by a gold or or other metal standard. Gold bullion sold in Zimbabwea is as good as gold bullion sold wherever you are.

Well unless they don't value gold as much and gold in the US might be worth more then it is in say Russia. Gold value change a lot actually.

[i2amroy]

Now here's what I don't get. How come a Siege of Knives gold coin isn't worth as much in Silence of Fortresses as a Silence of Fortresses gold coin is, and vice versa? The whole reason those coins have value is their material.

Actually, No. In DF The value of coins, even gold coins, come from the entity, not the material. This is caused by the low value
of metals. Note that gold is only worth 30 times as any rock.

This explains it pretty well. The value you get when you try to trade a Siege of Knives gold coin at a Silence of Fortresses trading shop is the actual value of the coin. I mean if you think of it you make a stack of 500 gold coins from a single bar of gold, so even with the 10x coin value modifier each gold coin is only worth .6 db by itself in material value. It's the fact that the entity that made it places it's value at 15 db that they are worth so much in that particular entity.