Strife strides down the street, getting a couple of the normal looks for his trench coat. He finds a conveniently labeled bar and goes in. It's open, but empty. "Probably more of a family place, no traffic for now."
Strife goes up to the bar and rummages through the pockets of his coat. "Is gold an acceptable currency here?"
He places the gold coin (crown gold actually, usually good enough though, valuable without being bendable) in front of the flabbergasted bartender. Too bad about the shock value though.
Luckily, the bartender was a habitual reader, so he knew the value of gold. Could he trust this stranger? "Errrrr, we only accept dollars here, sir . . ."
"It's 91.6 % gold; I know that it's irregular, but surely it's worth a lot?"
The bartender looked into Strife's eye's and decided to trust him. "I believe you buddy, but I can't put it in the cash drawer. I'd pay you cash from my own pocket, but I don't have enough to cover even a single gold piece, they're worth a lot."
"I'll give it to you, no change needed."
"Huh? Okay then, what would you like?"
Strife reached into the sleeve of his trench coat and pulled out a four sided dice. He rolled it once on the bar. It came up as a four. "Double vodka. No ice."
"The house is Smirnoff, does that work?"
"Sure."
The bartender poured the drink "I'm Adam, by the way, would you like to share yours?"
"Strife."
Strife took a gulp, then asked, "Obviously, I'm not from around here. If I wanted to change a gold piece like that to hard currency, where would I go?"
"Well, it depends. A pawn shop would probably give you some money for it, but I doubt that it'd be anything near what it's worth. Gold is something like $800 an ounce right now. Of course, with the amount of gold you're spending on a drink, it might not matter to you. You could go to a bank, but I have a feeling that that's more trouble to you than you'd like."
"Heh, that's right."
Strife nursed his drink and talked to Adam for a while. Weird questions mostly, where was he and who were they at war with. The grill/bar was empty. Eventually, the cook came out and joined the pair. Strife obviously didn't mind. The cook was a jovial black chap by the name of Martin. Strife eventually ordered a sandwich. He was just finishing it, when a few people entered the place. Martin shuffled back to the kitchen, and Strife got up to leave. Adam asked, "Are you going to be okay Strife? I know you'll say you will, but we're open ten to two, so if you need somewhere to go, I usually work the day shift."
"Okay then. I'll be back."
Strife left to the odd glances of the new patrons.