Monetary System

While it is possible to find other monetary systems in Dômus Môdé, most of them share the common system handed down from the ancient Empire of the Mäntôrans. They use Farthings, Pennies, Shillings, and Crowns.

What is a Crown—besides an uncomfortable hat that makes one a target? Well, a Penny is a piece of copper that must be broken into fourths [a fourth-thing or Farthing] to buy simple things, like a pint of ale. 20 Pennies make a Shilling. 12 Shillings make a Crown. So a Crown is worth 20 times 12 or 240 Pennies, which means that a person could buy 960 pints of ale—if one could drink that much. Clear?

You might think the people of Dômus Môdé never heard of counting by tens, but then there is the Royal, worth 10 Crowns, which is 2,400 Pennies or 9,600 pints of ale; and the Imperial, which is worth 10 Royals, which is worth 24,000 Pennies, or 96,000 pints of ale.

Pennies are made of copper. Shillings are made from silver, crowns can be made of gold, silver or both. Royals are made of gold and Imperials are old gold coins left over from the Mäntôran age. There are few regional variations.

While the copper and silver coins are fairly standard throughout Dômus Môdé, coins with gold tend to be weighed before they are valued.

The Southron system is different. Their smallest coin is called a Pak, which means loaf, and is worth a farthing. Historically, the Southrons used the worth of a specific sized loaf of bread as the base value for trading. Five Paks is a Yond, ten Yonds is a Deam, 10 Deam is a Nolay, and ten Nolay is a Krowan.

So, one Krowan is worth 5,000 loafs of bread which is worth 5,000 pints of ale, which is worth 5 Crowns, 8 Shillings, and four Pennies. Got it?

Recently, the Isle of Mäntôr has been recovered and resettled. As the Penny/Shilling/Crown system was originally Mäntôran, perpetuated by their colonies and descendants, you would think that the new government would use the same system. Think again. They stated by calling their coins Pennies, Shillings, and Crowns, but as the coins had different values, that simply confused everybody—including the new Mäntôrans. On the reverse of each coin is a symbol, an acorn, a fern, a maple leaf, and a bunch of grapes. So, despite what the official name was, everyone calls them an Acorn, a Fern, a Leaf, and Grape. The Mäntôran is similar to the Southron system. The farthing is an actual coin, with a mug shown on the back and is called either a farthing or a Mug. A penny (or Acorn) is worth four farthings (Mugs), a Fern is worth five Acorns, a Leaf is worth ten Ferns, and a Grape is worth ten Leaves—or, more importantly, 5,000 pints of ale.

Southron		New Mäntôran		Everyone Else
Pak	1 loaf	Mug	1 pint of ale	Farthing	1 pint of ale
Yond	5 Pak	Penny or Acorn	4 Farthings	Penny	4 Farthings
Deam	10 Yond	Fern	5 Pennies	Shilling	20 Pennies
Nolay	10 Deam	(Maple) Leaf	10 Ferns	Crown	12 Shillings
Krowan	10 Nolay	Bunch (of Grapes)	10 Leaves	Royal	10 Crowns
•	•	•	•	Imperial	10 Royals