After playing through Oblivion and Morrowind, I noticed that in Morrowind the term Drakes is used a lot more to describe currency than Septims. Which is the correct term and where did the incorrect term come from?

This was discussed in another thread - I think most people agreed that they assumed 'drake' was a slang term for septim, like buck or quid or something.

Neither Drake nor Septim is wrong (there's a drake, the Septim Dragon sigil, on the coin). Septim and Drake can be used synonymously, perhaps "drake" is used colloquially, just like "buck" for "dollar".

Edit: Too slow!

My impression is that both terms are widely accepted, I'm not sure what the official term would be, though, there seems to be a somewhat limited amount of lore surrounding the coins in the Elder Scrolls.

Thats a hard question, I think they're two completely different currencies, Morrowind uses Drakes like Britain uses Pounds, And Cyrodiil <--(Spelling?) Uses Septims like America uses Dollars.

I think in Morrowind there are Drakes, because Morrowind is under the lead of the Tribunal. The rest of Tamriel is ruled by the Empire. But thats just an idea...

Morrowind is not excluded from the empire.

As mentioned before, most likely Drake is just a slang for Septim as one side of the coin has Tiber Septim's image, the other one - Dragon's

Maybe it's just a regional thing. Drakes in Morrowind because the elves call it that and they make up the vast majority, and the foreigners got used to calling it that? And septims in Cyrodiil because the Emperor actually lives there? It's not that big of a deal. If anything the Devs might have wanted it to be septim in Oblivion because of Uriel Septim and whatnot. *shrug*

Yeah, I'd go with this. it's like how both "two dollars is your change" and "two bucks is your change" are right.

That seems most probable. I don't believe they're EVER called "Septims" by anyone in Morrowind, be them a really important Imperial (such as Caius) or otherwise. Still, they probably coined the term "Septims" for Oblivion and then used the slang as an excuse.

A bit of a late reply but i have just completed an escort quest in Morrowind (taking some pilgram to the fields of kumma sp?) and the journal updates saying that yourself have just recieved 150 septims for your trouble. The fact your are given gold coins, the same ones that everyone else calls drakes i think nails the lid on the coffin that they are one and the same (and its a regional nickname or something).

I think Morrowind was more interesting in that people would use the term Septim, drakes, or gold. Confused me a little at first, especially since I didn't realize drake = Akatosh dragon on the coin.

Probably colloquialistic, based on region and Imperial affluence. For example, you probably will here more people refer to coinage as "Septims" in Cyrodiil than you would in Morrowind, where they may use 'drakes' instead.

Americans also say Dollar and bucks right?

(Can't remember a second name for euro's though )