I was looking at a new mod by painkiller_rider that added different types of metal for the coins - which got me to wondering what currency did Tamriel use before the septims?

In Vvardenfell you can find dwemmer coins - from what material are these made?

Since there are no gold mines in Morrowind where do they get their coins from? The Indoril armour looks gold plated - believe it is some kind of chitin - so where does the gold come from?

Have done a serach on Morrowind USEP and The Imperial Library - but came up empty

There are gold veins, presumably in quite a few places. They just are not represented in game.

In Oblivion there are gold veins. I'm guessing the dwemer coins are made out of scrap metal.

Actually, the sheer quantity of "gold" coins represented in the game strongly suggests that their actual gold content is very low... if they are, in fact, actually gold. This is consistent with history; there has not, to my knowledge, been an empire in existence for any length of time that did not debase its currency (and ultimately itself) out of existence.

It's probably a mixture of gold and bronze and that sort of thing

Then they should have been.



Most likely the metal they used for their machinery mixed with another ingredient to give it that coin contrast.

How I miss the ebony and glass mines from Morrowind, they should have been in Cyrodill too

Who said gold in tamriel is as valuable as it is on earth? What if it's very frequent? There are gold mines all over Cyrodiil, and gold nuggets aren't that expensive.

Who ever said there were no gold mines in Morrowind? There are no gold mines on Vvardenfell, certainly, but that doesn't preclude the possibility of there being some on the mainland.

Besides, from all appearances the entirety of Tamriel uses the same currency.

Ebony was certainly unique to Vvardenfell, as it has its origins in Red Mountain, and I'm not sure but I believe Glass is as well.

If I remember correctly (now I'm going to have to go back and read it again), the Edward books (Daggerfall) posited the existence of a few rare ebony veins in the mountains of High Rock. Fictional, yes; but usually such basic facts are not made up just for fiction.

However, both glass as a material and the secrets of its working were supposed to be unique to Vvardenfell; thus, I was disappointed when I found that every bandit and his mother was wielding and wearing glass in Oblivion.

I'm fairly certain that Indoril armour is chitin, covered in gold leaf, then varnished with a resin. Can't remember where I read that, though.

I'm thinking that that's the case, too. While the coins might have actually been made of gold at some point, it's doubtful, just from a practicality standpoint, that there's anything more than the very basest of traces of gold left in those coins.

Well, considering how valuable gold jewellery is in Oblivion, I'd say that refined gold is worth quite a bit.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Lorkharn's heart leave behind a trail of ebony over northern Tamriel when it was fired across the continent on an arrow?

Probably just to mean it burned like a mother... They most likely used golden goose eggs as a currency before the septim.

The septim is merely the currency of the third empire, every kingdom and power before would have needed its ows currency as well, or they may have used a barter system -goods and metals are traded for what you want instead of exchanging currency for it. We have evidence, indeed proof, that the dwemer had a currency, but as yet I have seen no evidence of any other. In my explorations of Ayleid ruins, the only currency I have found was placed or dropped by bandits using the ruins as their hideouts. I have found little evidence of currency -but they do seem to possess a number of jewels and such, perhaps they used these in stead. I have not found any reman era coinage either, nor any coins dating to earlier times or the interregnum. PErhaps such evidence is yet to be discovered (in other words, the devs didn't put any in game) Perhaps someday we will find ancient hoards of old coins from past civilizations.

Now I find it likely that the empire will begin to do something, if it hasn't already, similar to Rome or any other large empire -it will replace its gold with lesser metals. First maybe silver, then bronze, then copper (many extant roman coins are made of copper)

My idea is that this has already happened, and is indeed one of the contributing factors to the Empire's collapse. It (among other things) is my explanation for the conditions described in the intro to Daggerfall and the ultimate conditions witnessed in Oblivion. The conditions I refer to are not the Daedric invasion, but the sparse development of Cyrodil relative to the other provinces, the sheer numbers of people who have turned to marauding and banditry in the absence of an effective legitimate market, the encroachment of the goblin tribes with the decline of human settlement, while development continues in the East in the face of criticism that this development is an unprofitable drain on Imperial resources.

It's a gameplay issue, adding a (sometimes unnessecary) depth to wherever we find the historic places. Indeed, there are some parts of ayleid ruins that supposedly have not been touched since the Ayleids came through. Yet gold exists there. The Reman era and Potentancy era forts should have some of that eras currency. However, it also would've likely used some amount of gold which means that either it would've gotten smelted, or it would've been next to indistinguishable to the Septim without looking at the picture on the coins and probably would've confused some people. They would've asked something along the lines of "Why is this coin separate?"

Personally, I believe them to be Aluminum.

On a post about the septim once before, I mentioned how the weight of metal would likely be more important than the number of coins (i.e. this deal costs you 5 ounces of gold) and I say this is a possible explanation as to why you find usable gold in ancient ruins.

As to dwarven coins being aluminum, that is quite possible -aluminum in a culture like the dwarves would be super valuable as it is quite hard to get -such is the reason why the Washinton monument has a pretty peak made of... aluminum. At the time aluminum was THE most valuable metal because the only method by which one could get it was SO expensive and difficult.

Personally I have always thought them to be silver for some reason.

As for metal Orcish was the rarest in Daggerfall.
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Orsinium

So every 0.1 weight in what ever dwemer coin is made of is the equivelent of 50 drakes? (im going by the cash physics of morrowind it might be diffrent in other games i wouldn't know because i havent played them....

No, I think that with Dwemer coins it's their age and rarity, not the metal content. Think ancient coins, which are worth hundreds in the real-world rare coin trade even though the metal is of negligible value.

some quarters are worth more then there depicted because of the silver content that is no longer used...

all U.S. pennies are worth more than 1 cent because the zinc is more valuable than that. All pennies made prior to sometime in the 1980's (I think it's 86) are worth quite a bit more as they are solid copper. It's possible (although illegal) to make money melting down old pennies for the copper