From: ANDERSJC@howdy.Princeton.EDU
Date: Tue 01 Mar 1994 - 19:26:41 EET
This is being posted for Paul Anderson, on Janet Anderson's account: On Coins:
The current published Gloranthan data are, I believe, as follows [for gold and silver coinage]:
Bar gold, unenchanted, is worth 600 L./ENC = 600 L./kg Bar silver, " " , is worth 50 L./ENC = 50 L./kg Coining doubles the value of raw metal.
Hence the Lunar is 10 g., and the Wheel is 16.67 g; gold:silver::12:1.
There are remarks which imply that this scale of values is only local; even that there might be an earth-cult region of Glorantha where copper would be most valued, with silver and gold second and third. This would permit Goldentongues to make fantastic profits, but then Goldentongues _should_ be able to make such profits, if they survive to do so.
I agree that 50% seignorage is high; I suspect there is mediaeval precedent for 25% or so. After all, coins _are_ more useful than an ingot of the same weight, for several reasons: Coins will (normally) be accepted by the authority that minted them, and therefore by anyone who expects to be dealing with that authority. Coins come in small amounts, whereas bar silver, much less bar gold, is only useful for very large transactions. Coins are relatively easy to make change for. You can spend them without a balance, an assayer, and an allowance for the assay sample.
It may be possible to justify the rate of seignorage along these lines: Magic produces better coins, of divinely guaranteed fineness, and which will never interfere with spirit magic; therefore, at least for precious metals, Coining spells are the standard technique, and stamped coins are quite simply counterfeits. Coin Wheel does not produce one coin, but one coin/MP stacked with the spell. Thus one application will produce at most 20 Wheels. Of these, 10 are the value of the bullion, and seven are fair value for a day of rest regaining the spell plus all the priest's MPs, leaving three or so for profit to be haggled over.
For comparison's sake, the basic Classical coins are the Athenian drachma (at 4.25 g. of silver) and the Roman denarius (just under 4 g. at the time of Augustus). These are at least as valuable as the RQ3 "penny"/Lunar - 1 drachma was a _good_ day's wage, 1/3 to 1/2 drachma a day's unskilled labor. No Greek coined gold (except for state emergencies) until Philip and Alexander; and the Romans did not until Sulla. The Romans coined bronze from the start; the Greeks did not. The Lydians coined electrum.
It is my impression that these mints would not, in general, coin bullion for passing citizens. These were offices of the State, or the Emperor, whose purpose was to produce the coins to pay the soldiers and expenses. The mints were run by junior magistrates, who bought ore and had the tribute and taxes melted down, and made coins, some of which paid their own salaries and paid - or paid for - the workmen.
Purity: Each Greek city coined its own money, each using its own weight for the drachma, which might or might not agree with somebody else's. Xenophon says that these coins were not useful at a distance from their own states (except for those of the Athenians; but Athens was a naval power, and had a silver mine of its own). Roman bronze coinage was, from very early, worth much more than the value of the metal. Roman silver and gold coins were 95% fine under the Republic and Augustus (and again under Constantine); but starting with Nero the coins became progressively smaller and baser. In 210 A.D the denarius weighed 3 g., and 40% of that was copper. In 260, the denarii were silver- washed copper bits. Nevertheless, people spent and hoarded them - we have the hoards.
On Elements:
I always thought the days of the week were in _geographical_ order, reading upwards. Darkness under the world, on which the seas rest, then the depths of ocean, then the floating earth, then air, then high heaven. This is one reason I like the Lunar link with Wildday: "the Element ye knew not, which links Heaven to the high gods" etc.,etc,. The anti-Lunars will reply that what is beyond the defenses of heaven is outer Chaos, and this just proves that the Lunars are another Chaos-mask.
On Monasteries
Sandy says:
>I know that abbeys were real important in [Anglo-Saxon] England but have no
>data on France or Spain...
It is my impression that monasteries were more important in Anglo-Saxon England than in contemporary France or Germany [Spain being occupied by Islam]. The Continent had more bishops, and the bishops were more powerful. Also, the great abbeys in the North of England (Jarrow, Lindisfarne...) were founded by Irishmen, who had a different tradition, in which the monastery thrived as a new version of the clan.
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