So, imagine the following scene. A warrior walks into a shop, and sees a nice big axe. It costs 2000 gold pieces. Pulling out his bag, he begins to count.

1....
2....
3....
etc.

Now, the question I am asking is: Do Septims (Drakes, Gold) have larger denominational coins? 5 Gold Coins, 10 Gold Coins, 100 Gold Coins?
Imagine trying to survive in today's world with only 1 Dollar Bills.
Has there ever been any reference to this sort of thing in past lore?

I don't think any such thing has been mentioned specifically, but it can be assumed that this is so. On the other hand, Tamrielic money in and of itself is a rather murky subject.

Plus it seems odd to me that an Empire like the one in the Elder Scrolls is able to so well maintain a single centralized currency, as well as prevent it from be melted down or counterfeited.

I think you're taking the lore a little too deep
You do have a good point though. Maybe a developer will have it mentioned in a book one day...

Yes, I suppose I am. I always get a little deep into things like Economics. Don't even get me started on what effects priceless Daedric artifacts would have on a local blacksmithing economy...

:lmao:
I like your thinking Welcome to the forums
But I really do like your thinking... The TES universe would be sooooo much better with this level of detail

And, as we learned with Bloodmoon, there is a sort of Stock Market in Tamriel. I wonder if we should come up with an economic anolysis of Tamriel, and try to compare the Septim to say... well, there is no other currency.

We could make up a currency :shrug:
I'm sure one of the true lore buffs would know more than me.

Heh. Compare the Septim to the Dollar and Euro. Let's go ask some financial buff how much a Daedric Battle Axe would go for at their local Wal-Mart.

Well you have an bottomless coin-bag in-game, so everyone else must have one too.

Perhaps it's because people have to spend so much time counting the coins, that no one has actually built any cities worthy of a continent spanning, millennial empire.

That's my take.

Hehe... Imagine he actually gave a price
We could assume the drake and septim aren't the same? Saying that it costs different amounts of money to buy things in Oblivion compared to Morrowind

No, the Septim and Drake are the same, it's like the difference between a Dollar and a "Buck". Gold is also a general term used to refer to Septims. Plus, the price differences in Morrowind are likely caused by local supply factors, not to mention the refusal of goods from Vvardenfell because of the blight.

Yeah, I did know they weren't the same but I wanted to live in a dream world for a while...
I really do like your ideas You could make Oblivion sound good to diehard Morrowind fans

I like both of the games, I think both have some things over the other. Of course, this is not the place for such debate.

:lmao: The Disaster at Ionith only happened because the soldiers were too busy counting their pay



Theres hundreds of places for that debate

Back on topic...

I can imagine a merchant seeing an adventurer coming into his shop and thinking "By Azura, please don't buy that Daedric Longsword that costs 40000 gold..."
Then the guy says "I'll take the Daedric Longsword."
The Merchant gets to stand with a forced smile on his face as the adventurer slowly counts out his gold, hoping he doesn't lose count.
So, I assume there must be some kind of system?

In the real world, we have Debit cards. Perhaps there's a similar, magical system in Nirn which doesn't rely on such a token (the card) but instead takes the exact amount needed via the act of agreeing to pay it. The money would be both physically present, and not physically present, at the same time.

Best I could come up with.

Daggerfall sheds a little light on this question. (As it does with all life's great mysteries.)

In Daggerfall, there were banks in every city, and gold had weight. Gold was so heavy that you couldn't really carry very much of it, so you went to the bank and traded your bulky gold for a weightless "Letter of Credit" which would be accepted in stores. So to buy that 40,000 gold longsword, you just presented a letter of credit and had the amount deducted, like a debit card.

For gigantic transactions, like houses or boats, you just went straight through the bank, and no physical gold was exchanged.

I don't know how this applies to Oblivion, though, since Cyrodiil seems to have abandoned the institution of banking all together.

Wow, like Dragon Quest. But better. Anyway, lets assume that Cyrodiil does have banks.

Perhaps, since gold has no weight, the "gold" appearing in your inventory simply represents your finds. Thus, when you buy something, letters of credit or whatnot are exchanged.

C'mon now folks. You can assume people deal in Cyrodiil with the same problem as people have done in the past. Letters of credit, banking, payment in kind or services.

Daggerfall had bank notes IIRC.

---

edit: Already mentioned I see.

If the coins are standardized (all of same weight and composition), you could simply weigh a bag of coins to assess the value within, no counting required.

As long as the minters aren't chipping bits off and melting them down for themselves. From what I've seen in Oblivion they're about the size and thickness of a pound coin, which makes them rather heavy. A lot thicker than most Roman coins.

Weighing the coins would make sense as there are so many sets of scales around, and there is a pretty good mod that re-opens the Bank of Cyrodiil. Considering some of the dialogue in Oblivion claims that 5 gold is more that some people make in a year, there must be smaller coins than a septim, but for mechanics reasons it's not part of the game. I wonder what the smaller coins would be called...

Really? That sheds some pretty disturbing light on the 100,000 Septims the 7-house-owning Champion of Cyrodiil wanders around with, unable to spend. My character has enough to give all 1,000 citizens of Cyrodiil 100 Septims, which must be more money than most of them have ever seen, and yet he just walks from place to place, complaining that there's nothing expensive to waste his money on.

Some hero. I never realized Oblivion was so dark.