Dwemer coins are a must.
Elven coins would be cool.

And yet, here in the real world, virtually every Emperor and king had new coins minted with his picture on it for centuries. England still does it, I believe. And Bethesda only has to change the graphics.

If there was any, I'd say cattle.

But our coins are just a representation of a value, they have very little intrinsic value as they are made from non valuable metals. Septims are gold coins, and as such have an actual value in of themselves. Think of our modern coins as being more like stamps or vouchers with an actual value of 0.0001p, and you'll easily see how we can mint new coins/print new notes and take old ones out of circulation when we get a new king or queen or when they change the size/shape/design.

The empire is law, the law is sacred.

Yes, but this was done while coins were still precious metal. Check any post-roman archaeological site. One of the ways they are dated is by the coins, which changed with each reign. They'd recall the old ones and melt them down. Such coins as we have through most of the history of minting were accidentally saved.

Originally, coins were nothing more than a way to guarantee the quantity and purity of gold, silver, or other precious metal used. A king would "mint" coins with his likeness as a way of stating "I guarantee that this coin is made of X amount of precious metal of acceptable purity". The next king would come along and mint new coins with his own face, but the earlier coins were still as valid as when they were new (or invalid, if he had a bad enough reputation for "chiselling" on the purity of material in his coins). As long as the merchants could weigh the coins and be assured that the purity was within acceptable limits, they could accept them. Local or well-known coins didn't even require weighing, because you could accept them at "face value" - the value guaranteed by the ruler whose face appeared on it.

A program of "recall" isn't needed. As taxes are paid using the old coins, the new ruler melts them down and reissues them with his own face. The coins serve as a constant reminder to the Legions of who's paying them, or to the general public of who's in charge. The new coins eventually replace the old over a period of a few years. Since the older coins begin to lose their size (and intrinsic value) by being "shaved" several times, it makes more sense to hand them in for "face value", rather than paying taxes with the new and full-sized ones.

The ridges on the sides of some coins were a way to make it more difficult to "shave" material off the edges, which was a common way of stealing from the coinage. A lot of early gold and silver coins are reduced to just over half their original size, to where the lost edge material infringes on the stamped portrait. Common metal coinage put a stop to that, because the metal isn't worth stealing.

Now, our "base metal" coinage is solely a guarantee of redeemable value by the minter, with a few rare exceptions such as the South African gold Krugerand (if those are still in production). The intrinsic metal value in most cases is almost nothing. Up until the 1960's, the US issued Silver Certificates, which were redeemable for a set amount of silver upon demand. Now, even those have been removed from circulation, and the coinage is based almost entirely upon trust in the government's ability to enforce its value, with only a few cents on the dollar supported by gold reserves. Thanks to inflation, and to the inability of the government to maintain the value of the existing money supply while constantly printing or minting more, the value of the coinage has plummeted to an abysmal low.

Around the time of the Americal Civil War, with increasing reliance on cash purchases as opposed to direct barter of goods, the US introduced the half-cent. That allowed for "small purchases", such as a single loaf of bread, because a penny was too large and cumbersome an amount for daily transactions. Compare that to the value of the dollar today......

If the king of Skyrim had the last name "Fishystick", "Fishysticks" would be the most likely form of currency being minted at the time, although there most likely would be more Septims still in use than the new coins.

Snow flakes. :biggrin:

To be serious, Septims are okay. It's the currency of Tamriel and should stay like it is.

Of course, value is subjective. Gold, or any other precious metal, isn't inherently worth more than paper; that it has "more" value is based on its perceived qualities, such as rarity of material, physical appearance, and difficulty of counterfeit manufacturing. This value exists because everyone (or a majority) agrees that it has value, buying power, whatever you want to call it. The desire to accumulate this transient wealth is based on the principle of conditioning: money has been "paired" with primary motivational needs, like food. Therefore, money (value) ---> means to acquire food.

That being said, I wish to see BIG, FAT, ROILING PILES OF SEPTIMS, fine tapestries, statues with emeralds for eyes, an- SHINYSHINYSHINYSHINYSHINYSHINYSHINY.

ok then forget fishy sticks and bottle caps lets go ahead and call them M'aiq's.

Great way to implement him into the game. :thumbsup:

NCR Dollars

Down with the septim, I want to get paid in Trident Layers

Yes, probably Hrothgarians or something

maybe it should be bottle caps, it is the ultimate currency

Already made a topic on this i dont see the need tk have this twice

Http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1168708-currency/

Generic gold coins, dwemer coins, septims (drakes), silver and gold nuggets precious gems, I believe barter will be more common then before.

Argonian hearts.

Wait a minute...

Dunmer hearts.

As long as it is actually physically possible, unlike in Oblivion. In Morrowind, you could trade furs for potions with ashlanders even if they had no money. In Oblivion, you had to convert it into coins first, and their gold amount was fixed.

With all do respect i posted this topic back in January.

Morrowind had "Gold", Oblivion had Gold called "Septims". Skyrim might have Gold called "Dovakiiiiiiiiin" :/

yeah i saw that after u posted in mine sorry about that i was on my ipod when i posted so i didnt notice when it was made. but also this thread wasnt alive when i posted mine, and mine has more posts

i think the empire still has enough of a hold to where the currency will still be septims

thats a pretty big assumption. i mean this is 200 years later without an emperor. also if it had as good of a hold as you say i dont think there would be a civil war in skyrim.

i honestly thought it was gold since that's what it showed up as in Oblivion whenever i did a quest for gold or whenever I found it in places that I looted..... as long as it makes a nice jingle sound when I take it, I will definitely be happy! :tongue:

edited part: can someone show me a site to where all the lore is?? is it on this site, or is it on another one??

200 years without any ruling body yeah right im pretty sure that at least a few emperors have stepped up to take the reins of the empires fate and if not then im pretty sure that cyrodills equivalent of the Parliament or senate stepped up