>You find ten thousand ancient coins
>The currency is no longer recognized
>>43525599
With any luck they're gold or silver bullion, so they can still be melted down for the value of the metal.
The general assumption is that even archaic currencies are made out of valuable metals or other substances. It's why you can pull out a chest of old coins and spend them- Not because they're recognized, but because in a pseudo-medieval world barter is legit, and gold is taken everywhere.
Find a collector that is interested. It can still be converted into usable currency but it will just take longer.
>>43525631
>archaic currencies are made out of valuable metals
http://currencies.wikia.com/wiki/Porcelain
>>43525631
That works. I can imagine that in fantasyland, the only really differentiating thing in currency is that there's different people's faces and different symbols stamped into the sides. With the addition of a standardized measuring system (with an analog "Master" length and weight) it would be pretty easy to simple say coins in various denominations are valued by the their weight, size, and what they're made of.
Of course whichever country owns the master by which all scales are calibrated is "Tradeland: the City where Everyone Goes to Trade Things."
>>43525599
That's what happened with money after the fall of USSR. My grandmother still has a full chest of those shitty old coins that nobody wants to buy.
>>43525599
>they're actually an ancient version of pogs
>>43525799
So even more worthless now?
IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM!
>>43525839
Then they can buy them from me.
>>43525743
It's not just fantasyland, before fiat currency was a thing (1970s or so, although it had been attempted before by powerful centralized states) the value of all currency was based on precious metals. The dollar used to be literally tradable for a given amount of gold, for example.
And in ancient cultures, when literally anybody with a mint and a supply of silver/gold could make little metal disks, the actual precious metal content was what mattered.
That's why:
1) Merchants had scales. They could recognize various precious metals and when changing money, they'd just weigh out x ounces of your weird foreign coins and figure out how many local coins you were giving them.
b) Intentionally debasing coinage was a thing- not a great thing to do, since people generally found out and your coins weren't regarded as highly.
iii) Edge decorations were a thing- people used to clip off bits around the edge and then re-melt them into shit. They were basically ripping you off for a little bit, which adds up. Imagine giving somebody ten bucks and then you look at it and the bill actually says "$9.50" on it. Assholes.
4) The face and symbols really didn't matter much- for example, the Romans would stamp the face of whoever was currently in charge on them, and nobody really cared much one way or the other. They were silver disks and that was the important bit. What was on them wasn't super interesting (unless it was debased- see above)
>>43525810
Not to Jim FUCKING Sterling SON!
>>43526023
pogfucker plz go
>>43525949
And this is why Archimedes was so important, not because of boat design, but it allowed you to test the purity of a coin to a admittedly imprecise measure.
>>43525743
>>43525631
You find a whole pile of coins made of the most precious of all metals:aluminium.
>>43526143
Dude, in the ancient world Aluminium would have been ridiculously valuable. The extraction process was only mastered recently, before that any quantity of such a light, strong metal would be worth many times its weight in gold.
>>43526143
I go to the local bank and exchange Arerbaijan coins for some bucks.
>>43526172
Aluminum nowdays very energy intensive to produce
>>43526143
>>43526172
Problem here, outside of a modern setting where it's not nearly as valuable, almost no one is going to know what the fuck Aluminium is.
>>43526245
Why do they need to know? It's an incredibly light, strong metal. Heck, alchemists would probably pay you more for a chance to study it and figure out what to do with it.
>>43526172
It used to be more valuable than gold, Napoleon III had a set of cutlery made of aluminium for his most prestigious guests. But then we figured out how to made it.
>>43526263
If it's in the shape of a coin it's strength isn't that important, particularly if you don't know how to work the material. Alchemists are likely the only people who would be interested in it.
>>43526290
Melting Aluminium is pretty easy, it's the extraction process which is a bitch. Reforging already existing coins wouldn't be beyond the capabilities of an archaic smithy.
>>43526290
At that point you just sell all your coins in bulk to someone like a metalworker, or other interested party in exchange for easier to barter currency.
Sure, it might be difficult to barter with because it's a coin. But remember a coin is still a round disk of metal that can be melted down and recast. It's definitely possible for you to find a buyer of aluminium in a fantasy setting.
I'd use them as props for my players.
>>43526172
I'm pretty sure that was the point he was making. It USED to be incredibly valuable, but now it's basically worthless in terms of the value of the material.
>>43525599
Then we simply forge a kingdom where we recognise the currency. You people need ambition.
>>43525720
>there is a wiki dedicated exclusively to currencies
>>43525599
Coin collectors. And if they're in any way precious, you can sell them to bankers who'll just melt them down, repurpose them, whatever.
