Currency

The Merebian Empire trades in a vast array of different products (anything from silk to slaves) over a landmass that dominates the known world.

In order to do this reliably it has established two very distinction forms of currency usually referred to as "mundane" and "precious".

Mundane Currency

Mundane currency is, essentially, coinage. The Merebian Empire has several mints located in major cities, which produce coins of a precise and standardised size, weight, composition and design. This ensures that anyone trading in goods can ask for a set amount of coinage and know that they can use that coinage to purchase goods of equivelent value anywhere in Imperial controlled lands.

The coin names and types are as follows;

Name	Metal	Value
As	Lead	0.25 Unari
Unari	Copper	1 Unari
Sestari	Bronze	2.5 Unari
Denari	Silver	10 Unari
Centari	Gold	100 Unari
Millari	Platinum	1000 Unari

The Imperial economy is based on the "Unari" standard. An Unari is a copper-based coin about the size of a UK 2p piece. As of the year 343IC, 1 Unari will buy either one average-quality pint of ale, or two loaves of decent bread.

The actual precious metal content of the different coin types varies depending on how soft the "parent" metal is. For example, the 'As' and the 'Unari' are both about 50% lead and copper respectively, whereas the 'Centari' has a gold content of just over 10%.

Although Millari coins are minted, they are done only in small numbers and primarily used as a coin for tax collection purposes rather than 'everyday' use.

Precious Currency

For very large commodity transactions, the use of mundane currency becomes difficult. Transporting 1000's of Centari (or, worse, millions of Unari) becomes both risky and expensive. Therefore, for purchases in the region of 1000s of Centari it is far more common to use the precious currency types; platinum, mithril and residium.

The 'precious' currency types then are given by weight of the pure substance. However, standard weights can be difficult to come by. Luckily, Imperial coins ARE all a standard weight. Hence it is most common to have these precious currencies express in "NCC"s (Number of Centari Coins).

Currency	Value per 'NCC'
Platinum	1,000 Unari
Mithril	5,000 Unari
Residium	10,000 Unari

Residium is, of course, the remains of magic items which have been destroyed by the "Disenchant Magic Item" ritual. It most often appears as a "block" of residium although residium dust is also popular.

Gemstones as Currency

Many people believe that gemstones are precious currency types. Whilst some gems, if properly cut, can have great value it is very difficult to produce meaningful standards using them. Two diamonds of equal volume and weight, for example, may vary in actual worth by as much as 100% (in the case where one has significant flaws).