Amelia Wulfhart
𝕰𝖍𝖗𝖊 𝖉𝖎𝖊 𝖂𝖔̈𝖑𝖋𝖎𝖓𝖆
Objective: To codify the currency used in the Osterreich
Category: Currency
Image Credit: Nef | AI Images
Development Thread: N/A
Permissions: Here
Name: Reich of Ostrien Currency
Affiliation: Reich of Ostrien
Craftsman: Reich of Ostrien (Gold Coins) | Provincial Overlords (Silver Coins) | Local Nobility (Copper Coins)
Availability: Mass-Produced
Materials: Gold, Silver, Copper
Magical: No
Tradeable: Yes
Customizable: Yes | Groats are cut into bits, usually by the Mint, but sometimes by less trustworthy merchants who may not be totally precise. Some may even shave bits slightly.
Description: Imperial currency is based on gold, silver, and copper weights standardizing the value of these materials throughout Ostrien.
The Gold Bar, minted and pressed with the Ostrien Eagle, consists of eighty ounces of gold. Typically this is how large wealth is stored, only used for purchasing significant sums of land, large dowries for high nobility, hiring large mercenary companies, paying for major campaigns by Dukes and the Imperial Court.
The Stamp is a small rectangular golden tab weighing eight ounces. Usually it bears the Ostrien Eagle at the top and the official weight and gold consistency at the bottom. Gold stamps are large sums, most knights only earn a handful of these each year and rarely have gold in this quantity. Nobility may use them to purchase fullplate armor, a well bred warhorse, and expensive jewelry sets.
The Crown is the standard Imperial gold coin, weighing one ounce of gold, worth twenty four ounces of silver and nine-hundred-sixty ounces of copper. The face bears the Ostrien Eagle and the back the Curian Hollow Sun or the Curian Cross depending on which Imperial Mint it is derived from. This is the coin spent by nobility, able to purchase a riding horse for two-six coins, a set of fine clothing, and quality weaponry.
The Thaler, a large heavy three ounce silver coin. It represents the usual pay for a professional soldier for a month, though typically it is used for purchasing bulk goods, whole grain shipments, and timber lots. Artisans are typically paid in thalers for major jobs and livestock is sold for thalers.
The Mark, a coin made from one ounce of silver bearing a tower on the face and the heraldry of the local ruling house where the coin was minted. It is the largest coin minted outside direct Imperial control, overseen by dukes or prominent counts controlling a province. It is one twenty-fourth the value of an ounce of gold and equal to forty ounces of copper. The Mark is used to purchase chickens, pigs, goats, decent clothing for the middle-class, smaller artisan jobs.
The Half-Mark is a half-ounce silver coin bearing whatever heraldry of the house that controls the mint it was pressed at. Those minted in Aaven bear the Imperial Eagle, while those minted in Oberseaxlund would have the von Brecht Sunburst. The Half-Mark is used for high-end food, or several weeks worth of grain. Good lodging might cost as much as a half-mark in a major city or fortress.
The Groat is a one copper ounce coin bearing the Curian cross on the face and any number of sigils on the back. Smaller mints such as barons and powerful bannerets might be allowed to mint a groat. People might exchange a groat for a full tavern meal with a side of meat and some vegetables included, lodging for the night in a normal bunkhouse inn, or the ingredients to make a meal for a whole family. Groats are noticeable to the peasantry and add up among the artisan class, commonly exchanged among townsfolk and soldiers.
The Bit is a quarter ounce of copper, usually a literal fourth of a groat cut along the lines of the Curian cross on the face. While not common and culturally frowned upon, some merchants have been known to make change by cutting groats themselves. Usually these are the unscrupulous sort. Bits are used for purchasing basics, just enough grain to make a loaf of bread, cheap ale, porridge or perpetual stew in a tavern. Bits are used every day by the peasantry and laborers.
EXCHANGE RATES
| Gold Bar | Gold Stamp | Gold Crown | Silver Thaler | Silver Mark | Silver Half-Mark | Copper Groat | Copper Bit |
Gold Bar | 1 | 10 | 80 | 640 | 1,920 | 3,840 | 76,800 | 307,200 |
Gold Stamp | 1/10 | 1 | 8 | 64 | 192 | 384 | 7,680 | 30,720 |
Gold Crown | 1/80 | 1/8 | 1 | 8 | 24 | 48 | 960 | 3,840 |
Silver Thaler | 1/640 | 1/64 | 1/8 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 120 | 480 |
Silver Mark | 1/1,920 | 1/192 | 1/24 | 1/3 | 1 | 2 | 40 | 160 |
Silver Half-Mark | 1/3,840 | 1/384 | 1/48 | 1/6 | 1/2 | 1 | 20 | 80 |
Copper Groat | 1/76,800 | 1/7,680 | 1/960 | 1/120 | 1/40 | 1/20 | 1 | 4 |
Copper Bit | 1/307,200 | 1/30,720 | 1/3,840 | 1/480 | 1/160 | 1/80 | 1/4 | 1 |
- Standardized: Having a standard currency across the nation allows for easier interstate trade.
- Weight-Based: The currency is weight based with coins made of the approximate weight of their respective precious metal, meaning the coin itself represents the value.
- Irregular Cut: Bits are cut Groats, meaning that when done outside a mint irregularities occur making the value of a bit less trustworthy, the most commonly used coin in circulation.
- Inconvenience: Transporting large sums of wealth requires wagons and guards, so just moving the money from place to place costs money.
The origins of the Osterreich currency can be traced easily back to the kingdom of the Merovingans under Marloman the Great and his father Mavis I. Their consolidation of the Merovingan lands brought with it struggles with interpreting the values of various coins, often struck locally in silver and copper by regional lords with weight and purity varying wildly. Early coins were irregular and some merchants wouldn't accept certain local currencies that they did not trust to be pure, limiting trade and restricting enterprise. Marloman reformed the system, standardizing the value of gold, silver, and copper based on one ounce of each precious metal and organizing the first coins, the Crown, the Mark, and the Groat to stabilize taxation, military pay, and long-distance trade across his empire. His reforms tied authority to coinage, to mint was to rule and so only mints controlled by the Imperial House were permitted to mint gold. The spread of his standardized money became a symbol of his authority.
After the Merovingan Empire fractured into the Osterreich and the Kingdom of Merelias, both successor states retained the underlying weight system, but diverged on exact coinage. The Reich of Ostrien refined Marloman's model by adding Bars and Stamps for larger denominations of gold as wealth increased. The groat was cut into fourths to allow peasants to make smaller and smaller purchases as the wealth gap between them and the nobility widened. However, the Osterreich made efforts to preserve strict metal equivalence to maintain trust across the system, adjusted the values of the Mark and the Groat as gold became rarer and more expensive.
The Imperial House maintained control over the minting of gold, but granted provincial lords overseeing prominent duchies and counties to mint silver coinage, and then later permitted local barons to mint copper money. Over time the system became less about central enforcement and more about expectation. A crown is not valued because the Emperor decrees it so, but because every lord, merchant, and soldier knows exactly what it contains and what it is worth. This continuity allows the Imperial economy to function across borders, loyalties, and generations.
Last edited:
