Banks were necessary in Daggerfall, because coin had actual weight. If you wanted to buy an expensive house, you had to load up a cart with gold coin so you could haul it over for purchase. Or you could go to the bank for a letter of credit. It wasn't really feasible to haul around a million gold coins. That's where banks came into play.

As someone who enjoys the concept of way too much realism, I would welcome banks, and weighted coin, and letters of credit for that matter.

Imagine if you had to buy that $450 item in one dollar bills because there are no larger denominations, which is more accurately what this is. Having pennies and hundred dollar bills is generally more convenient than dealing with everything using one dollar bills. Note that this is only coming up in reference to banks; if the economy is extremely simple, then no, there's not much need to fancy up the cash. In the context of banks and bartering and gold having weight and a more active economy and, in general, a lot more "money handling" going on, using denominations can make things much easier.

Banks seem slightly unrealistic given the populace and relative time period of the game. Made more sense in Daggerfall due to the epic scope and number of people, I think. Banks need customers to make money and I can't imagine any given Skyrim city having a large enough population to warrant the inclusion of them. That said, I can see 1 centralized bank that aids in commerce and such, and MAYBE a branch or two that has VERY limited functions.

I think that this response has come up about 4-5 times now. Skyrim is not a barbaric wasteland. It is an old and powerful civilization with considerable wealth (see the link in my signature). Why shouldn't they have banks?

Never said they were barbaric, nor did I say they didn't have wealth. I stated that banks thrive on customers, and given the population of the games released since Daggerfall I can't see a bank making enough money to survive. A better idea? A Nord-type mafia. You need loan, they can get you one...but you will pay it back with great interest.

Never said they were barbaric, nor did I say they didn't have wealth. I stated that banks thrive on customers, and given the population of the games released since Daggerfall I can't see a bank making enough money to survive. A better idea? A Nord-type mafia. You need loan, they can get you one...but you will pay it back with great interest.

Except that, no matter what, the smallest value is still one coin. So, really, all you are saying is that the coin would be exactly the same with different colors. See, if an apple costs one and a magic helmet costs 20,000 apples then the ratio will be the same regardless of what intervening coins the items are priced in. In a one currency system all you have to do is look and see, "Ok that helmet is 20,000 and the apple is one" whereas under your system it would be more like "Ok, the apple is one and the helmet is worth two of a more valuable coin". The value ratio is the same, but much less obvious. Imagine if stores in real life started pricing things that cost 100+ euros or dollars or whatever as costing, for example, 4.5 "big dollars" instead of 450 dollars. What would be the point, other than to confuse people.

They can change that in two ways. One having a barter system, two in having local scrips with gold as a leveling universal factor. Most transactions at a low level would be handled by the local currency, with gold as a more valuable currency that applies everywhere. The bank can change your money to local currency for a small fee. Other than that, every quest should have the option of being paid in gold, or the local currency, with you getting more of the local currency because they know you can only spend it in their town.

That would be more realistic, sure, but this is a situation where realism, I think, detracts from fun, rather than enhancing it.

If they have banks will I be able to rob them?

Yeah.

of course you have to clarify when you say a bank, you mean like the bank as we know it today? then definitly not, they cant exist on a game like that, but surely they can add some characters that do the same job

Well in that case I'd love them. :biggrin:

I feel that a bank would be out of place in Skyrim. It just doesn't make sense to me that Nords or any other race for that matter would have constructed a banking system with the exception of maybe imperials, but even then I don't think it would stretch beyond Cyrodiil.