Coinage in Khauran

[Supplement Four]

It stands to reason that the different nations of Conan's time mint different types of coinage. Coins would come in different shapes and sizes featuring different impressions and likenesses.

The game uses the standard silver piece (probably closer to Aquilonia's coin) and the occasional gold piece to keep coinage "simple" in the game. But, a GM intent on imparting atmosphere of different places might also want to describe, from time to time, the different coins used in different parts of the world.

In Andrew Offutt's Conan The Mercenary, the common coin of Khauran is also the silver piece. But, it must be a much larger silver piece than is normally used in the rpg. One silver from Khauran will buy much that several silvers in the game will buy.

Spartus, Khashtris' head of household, presented the newcomer with a single silver coin.

"Three of these would purchase the sword you wear; eight would buy a good mare, Conan. This is against your wages, that you might not be penniless in Khauran."

"What," Conan asked of Shubal, "is the price of a mug of ale a Hilides?"

"Two for a copper. That silver coin wil exchange for twenty good coppers."

"I am almost rich enough to be drunk, " Conan said, and made the silver Queenhead vanish.



Just guessing: The Queenhead must be as large as an American fifty-cent piece, or maybe a dollar coin. The silvers normally used in the game must be smaller, the size of an American nickle, or a dime.

 

[Clovenhoof]

IIRC the core book says a silver piece is about 5 grams.
In my game, I'm using the Carolingian Pound as base for currency, which consists of 240 silver pennies. So each sp is _roughly_ 2 grams in my game.

As long as the money is fine mint, i.e. almost pure silver or gold, it's always worth its weight in silver or gold, no more, no less. You mint it into coins just so that people can trust the money and know they get so and so many grams of silver without weighing it everytime. But when you get a bunch of different currencies on a bazaar, and add in the odd barbarian who pays in unminted bits of silver, weighing it is still the way to go.

So in short, a 20g coin of sterling silver cannot be worth 10 times as much as a 5g coin of sterling silver.

The trouble is you can't really compare the prices, because the game book lists horses between 100 and 2200sp, and swords are about 10 times as expensive as a similar weapon.

Last not least, the writer may not have thought about it a lot. Maybe he was thinking on way too modern terms concerning convertible currencies, and was under the delusion that to a Khauran trader, 10g of silver in Queenheads are worth ten times more than 10g of any other silver coin. Which simply does not follow.

What _could_ be the case is that silver is extremely scarce in Khauran, so copper is the standard form of payment, but then any foreign silver coins would still be worth their weight in silver Queenheads.

 

[Supplement Four]

Nice thoughts.

What _could_ be the case is that silver is extremely scarce in Khauran, so copper is the standard form of payment, but then any foreign silver coins would still be worth their weight in silver Queenheads.

Doubtful. Khauran is a smallish kingdom, connected with Koth, and to a lesser degree, Shem, Zamora, and Turan for trade. Khauran used to be a duchy of Koth, until it found its independence. Therefore, it's money should be somewhat interchangeable with those other countries.