Weekend Entertainment

[boston_bruiser]

Taking advantage of West Coast time, I am.

West Coast Best Coast, it is.

From pullsneedles:

Let's talk money. Not economic status but actual currency. Does your pup's world have it? Did they used to have it but now society doesn't need it anymore? Is it coins, paper money, credit cards, something completely intangible all together? Assuming it's physical, does anyone collect it? Is it a universal currency or specific to your pup's country/world?

Comments

[herr_bookman]

German marks, I guess? Currency is one of those things neglected in this cannon, as is time, so I couldn't tell you which period's money they use.

[jjprobert]

All of my pups deal with the range of currencies we have in the modern world.

[a1enzo]

The unit of currency in cyberspace is called the unit. Very straightforward, that. I've been operating on the assumption that it's the same currency throughout the Net, but as it's only even been mentioned twice it's impossible to say. (Those two occasions were in different systems, though, and a character newly arrived to the second system understood what value was being referred to, so...)

We have seen only one cash transaction. See icon.

In Millicanon, I decided that the currency denominations are probably binary, because ReBoot. Bills for 1 and up, coins for half-units, quarter-units, eighth-units, etc. No transaction will ever involve more than one bill/coin of the same denomination.

[inlovewithwords]

As I wait for a plane flight home...

Lois and Henry live in the modern US. I once worked out some in-detail stuff about Alera's monetary system, but basically it's your basic fantasy coppers, silver ('bulls'), and gold coins ('eagles'). I will happily go into more detail A) once I dig up the thinky-thoughts and B) once I'm home and not on my phone.

[aberrantangels]

Most of my pups deal with real-world moneys, and Ryûk's Shinigami-kai is the only one that doesn't have some established medium of exchange. (Or might not — I have vague memories of shiki wagering the extra years of life they've acquired using their Death Notes, but I may be thinking of a fanfic, or of Davy Jones' crew wagering years of their term of service.)

In the world of Snow Crash, the US dollar went into freefall some time ago — my headcanon, which I keep meaning to discuss with Hannah, is that it happened in 1995, late in Perot's first term. It's established by Stephenson that Reagan's face is on the quadrillion-dollar bill and Ed Meese is on the trillion. The main hard currencies are the Nipponese yen and the Greater Hong Kong Dollar ("Kongbuck"). Most transactions that matter to the story take place either electronically or via credit cards; the only hard-cash deal I can think of is when YT and Ng try to score some Countdown.

The monetary unit of Soul Society is the kan. I'm pretty sure it's mainly in coins, and is not really fungible with the yen (although Urahara probably does under-the-table conversions at his shop).

[minkhollow]

The Six Lands run on gold and silver currency (tellins and stellins, respectively); I don't think there's any point in the books that says how many stellins go into a tellin, but Sam's narration does muse at one point that a thousand tellins for Mizzamir's head is an absurdly low price compared to past going rates. I tried flipping through the book to find that bit, but I couldn't.

The Warehouse runs on its current host country's currency, so that'd be the US dollar.

Apollo mainly works with drachmas, and the main use we see of them in canon is 'get Iris to run messages for you.' Sometimes he does use mortal currency, but that's rare.

Imp is most familiar with Morporkian dollars, currently still in coin form.

Regulus: Galleons, sickles and knuts, and all the attendant problems thereof. He's quite used to dealing with the ridiculous conversion from one to another, even though his family's well-off enough that he generally only has galleons on hand (unless he just bought something).
(Side note: I think JKR said at one point that the goblins make wizarding currency. If so, given goblins' canon attitude toward still owning what they made no matter who's currently claiming they own it... why are they in charge of the bank??? Really, with the history of rebellions, why are they in charge of the bank anyway? All they have to do next time they get pissed off is close the bank.)

The monetary system is Just One More Thing we don't know about the Enchanted Forest. There is gold to be had - just ask Midas - but I don't think it tends to circulate through the general population; Red and her grandmother generally get by on bartering. It's safe enough when you're not making a deal with Rumpelstiltskin and easier than expecting everyone to have cash.

[pullsneedles]

Mia's world runs on silver pieces, which means either the coins are small or silver is common on Lunar considering the price of things. 25s for a shirt in Burg seems a bit much if one of those factors wasn't in play. We never actually see silver in Lunar, so I can't really say what they look like. The characters talk about them as coins yet someone's able to hide silver in a book, which seems pretty bulky to me. (Unless it's one of those hollowed-out books, which would probably cost more than the 10s stashed in it.) And as you can see from what I typed, the symbol for silver is a lowercase S behind the number.

Lucas's home was essentially a functioning model of communism before the events of the game began, which introduced Dragon Points or DP. Like Lunar, we never actually see DP. But there is a point when Fassad gives Butch a big bag of DP for his pigs. We're talking the cartoony bags of money that thieves take from the bank. The bank system is handled by frogs. Yes, actual frogs.

The Knight, being in a fairy tale, probably has a different currency from the others in Princess Tutu. I imagine it's standard gold coin fantasy currency.

[kd7sov]

Felix's world's money has undergone a fair bit of millicanon, not all of it in current millicontinuity. In canon, you have whatever number of "coins", and when you get them from treasure chests or whatever they're yellow and roundish, and that's as far as it goes. Millicanonically, they're basically gold (though probably quite a lot of them are not entirely pure) and an inch in diameter, probably something like twice as thick as an American quarter. It seems to be pretty universal, though that may be as much merchant apathy as anything else.

Kain is in roughly the same scenario: one currency, one denomination. He hasn't been in enough for millicanon to develop, and there's very little canon on it.

Fluttershy and Cranky are from Equestria, which uses the bit (and, on one occasion, the cent as a lower denomination). This appears to be a yellowish coin; I wouldn't want to make up more without conferring with the muns of other ponies, especially the ones who run businesses or have made multiple on-screen transactions.

[cameoflage]

Oh goody, I have canonical answers for both pups!

Aradia's universe has several currencies. Before the world ended for the trolls, I think they used caegars, which only ever appear in the form of a coin Terezi owns; the Medium has boondollars, which seem to be good for buying fraymotifs and absolutely nothing else, and grist, which comes in various types and you use it to build additions to a player's house and alchemize stuff. The trolls all have a shit-ton of grist and also the game is over, so it's not that important to them even for alchemization, which is the only decent use they still have for the stuff. Grist is a gaming abstraction that disappears when you touch it; boondollars have physical form, in the shape of colorful coins or bars or the like.

Dr Thurlow's universe also has several different currencies. London stopped using British currency when it was stolen by the Echo Bazaar; this is part of a general trend of the Masters attempting to separate Fallen London from its former surface identity. (They also changed all the street names and declared old street signs contraband, for instance.) The currency of the Bazaar is Echoes, which appear to be banknotes, but they're only useful at the Bazaar. (They're also conveniently decimalised; one Echo divides into a hundred pence.) Nobody else seems willing to be paid in Echoes.

The citizenry prefer to do business in... usually Neathy precious stones and metals, but secrets, gossip, and surface currency (circa 1890ish, of course) are also in circulation. There's moon-pearls (like regular pearls, but they show the phase of the moon), jade (made from fossilised souls), glim (possibly a gemstone, possibly shards of phosphorescent insect chitin), rostygold (not closely related to gold, but similar-looking; it's made from the blood of the freshly dead, and traditionally used to pay people for killing something), Nevercold brass from Hell (seemingly ordinary apart from being warm at all times, unless you consider the source), and deep amber (traded by the Rubbery Men, which TV Tropes describes as 'eldritch immigrants'). Different demographics favour different currencies, too. And occasionally your character will be paid in some other form of goods, like wine, contraband books or shrieks sealed in jars.

[bjornwilde]

Ben lives in a modern world, but tends to use credit/debit cards due to the physical limitations of his body. Picking up small flat discs, let alone small pieces of paper, when your skin is rigid isn't easy.

I think Jess tends to use credit/debit when she is in costume (when needed) as it's less to carry. Out of costume she prefers using cash.

Palamedes would have to use barter or coins.

Andrea, oddly enough still uses paper money. Despite the crumbling social and infrastructure of her America, money is still valued and made. Of course so are goats, chickens, cheese and other barter items.

To be honest I don't think any of my pups has exotic money. Sorry. = ]

And yes, West Coast is the Best Coast!

[mnt_mike]

The bulk of my characters are from a version of our Earth. And not just our Earth, but the America portion of it. So...that's dollars and cents.
Ida probably has some sort of credit account somewhere, but Mike, Raph, and Splinter do not. Such things require identification, and they don't have any. Also...such things require one to not be a mutant animal of some sort.

Exceptions to this are The Loompas, and then Aang and Bumi.

The Loompas were a barter economy before Wonka made them "factory workers," now that they're free of him they're a Communist state.

In Aang's time the remaining three nations had their own currencies. I think the only one we really get any good understanding of in the show is the Earth Kingdom which worked on the Copper, Silver, Gold standards.

In Bumi's time it's quite possible that the nations still have their own monies, but there's a new economy on the boom in Republic City, and their unit of money is the Yuan.

[ceitfianna]

Will lives in an older England when it was more coin based.

Charles lives in the modern world and uses dollars or the more confusing older English system of currency when he was in Oxford.

Jane's in England and uses the money of that era, which is the time of I believe pounds and schilling. I know there's a particular name for it, but I'm feeling a bit out of it this afternoon, morning.

The Old Kingdom runs on a coin based system who's name I'm blanking on at the moment, but there are definitely silver coins as Sameth mentions carrying some with him when he leaves Belisaere.

William's from America but from a time when a little more of our currency was in coin, not all of it just the smaller denominations.

Most of the Discworld countries run on a coin based system with different names depending on the country. Moist knows them and all their banks rather well.

Demeter lives in the modern world and so uses mainly the Euro as that's the currency of the places she travels.

I've never been clear on how money in Narnia works, I know there must be something but not a clue otherwise.

The Pirate King is in England so has that eras money.

I'm at the start of a nice long weekend and apparently needed it as I slept very late.

[death_gone_mad]

I imagine that at the point I am playing Amascut from that the various nations of main continent (or group of subcontinents) of Gielinor don't have a unified currency. Some areas still don't honor the unified currency in the present game. The central bank hasn't come into existence, at least. Still, gold coinage is used almost everywhere. And why not? Gold is very unreactive and is a good way of holding value. Nevermind that storing things in a bank in game will preserve it forever, even in the case of raw meat, live animals, already rotten tomatoes, and tissue paper party hats. MMO BANK MAGIC!

But anyhow, back to gold coinage. During the Fourth age, currency was in silver, probably because of shortages in gold after several thousand years of on and off war worldwide. There was also a runestone shortage, but that is another story. In the present age, those shortages were eliminated in a big way. Metals, both precious and non-precious, became super abundant again somehow. Maybe people forgot how to mine and refine metals after the wars of the third age? So, laws of supply and demand being what they are, gold's value is ridiculously low. I think I calculated the fair price of a sheet of paper was 4 pounds worth of gold coinage.

Exchange rates are therefore almost always going to be ridiculously in her favor.

[aberration]

Elle and Leslie come from modern versions of Earth with typical currency. Though given that Elle is living in an underground bunker, sometimes luxury goods can be more effective than money.

Asami lives in Republic City where the unit of currency is the Yuan, which I'd assume refers to this. Though at least back in A:TLA, it appeared that currency exchange among the Nations wasn't much of an issue.

For Manny, I made up that there is a form of note currency in the Land of the Dead, but it's only meant to facilitate basic transactions. The only thing of real worth there is transportation to the Ninth Underworld, and that can only be bought with a combination of good acts in life and whatever money you were buried with upon death. Everything else, at least to most, is just a temporary distraction.

The Land of Ooo does appear to have some kind of economy, as people run shops ans Princess Bubblegum collects taxes, but what's used or at least appeared as money has included treasure, dollar bills, pennies, and... other things I'm probably forgetting. So I would guess barter system combined with whatever it is the area/people you're interacting with are into.

[souffle_girlek]

Ace is from modern England, and has gotten pretty good at translating one from of currency to another, thanks to her travels.

Oswin is from the future, and from the way she talks, I assume there's still currency in use - she took on a job in the service sector on a starliner to get away from home and go adventuring, rather than just... y'know, magically getting on a ship. I believe the writers for DW are slightly more cynical than other SF writers - the notion of currency is very infrequently declared null and void.

Katya is from modernesque Russia, currently in modernesque America - in both, she abides by the rules of currency... though that currency might not have been in existence until very very recently. Others deal more in favors amongst themselves - amongst their own kind (a Light Other amongst other Lights) it's more of a communist society - resources go into a central pool, and withdrawn as needed. Between the two groups, if (say) a Light Other exerted influence for her side, the Dark has the right to ask for an equal and opposite influence for their side. If the Light Other gets caught at it. And isn't under orders to start a fight. >.>

Bones.... um. GOOD QUESTION. Because they frequently make 'yay we are a currency-less society omg!' sounds, but then talk about buying things on leave? And the whole lithium-based trade that goes on in DS9. IDK. I'd say yes, at least to obtain things off-Earth, since it seems not everyone is playing by the same rules yet.

Haymitch lives in post-World War Somethingorother USA, and money is tragically a huge factor. Though now that he has plenty, he has... absolutely nothing to spend it on other than moar alcohol. He's found Snow takes a disturbing amount of interest if he spends it on or for someone in the Districts.

Glorfindel lives in a coin-based (and I'd suspect in many places barter-based) society, though who's minting said coins I've never been entirely clear on - most likely they're all left over from the heyday of Gondor and Anor, with some coinage from other times and places thrown in for variety, and odds are that the hobbits have their own system... but mostly he lives in his lord's household, and wants for pretty much nothing.

Shaz lives in modern-esque Britain, though really really? It doesn't much matter. There's still always just enough money for what she needs.

Balthazar lives in modern America, and figured out a long long time ago that interest on bank accounts is his friend. He just has to remember to move everything around once in a while so no one gets too suspicious.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Gordon and Adrian are from a world where humanity is currently on the barter system. I strongly suspect local currencies are going to start springing up very soon and there will be all kinds of exchange rate fusses going on, not to mention people who may have hoarded gold or pre-Combine dollars or what have you, but that has yet to be worked out in detail.

Ray's from 2013 America. They have pretty standard currency and attitudes towards it there.

Medic's from nineteen-sixty-mumble Germany and collects his pay in deutschemarks, but otherwise the answer is pretty much the same as for Ray.

Hektor is from around 1200 or so BCE. Currency has not been invented yet, neither in Lydia nor in China.

Mordin is from a galactic civilization with a lot of different interacting races and currencies and banking systems and whatnot, and if you ask me the volus race ought to have been admitted to the Citadel Council for their role in reconciling the banking systems alone, but for the most part all you ever see of money in Mordin's universe is 'credits' so there you go.

Varric's world has a wiki page about the currency. Not much of one but I'm lazy so that's what you get.

In Ellen's part of the world the only currency is bottlecaps. I assume the edges are crimped under to prevent them ripping up people's pockets. I've handwaved that they're a water-backed currency, like the caps in the first Fallout game. I'm assuming that certain types of cap are treated as different denominations, because otherwise you're going to end up engaging in transactions that require you to carry a ridiculous amount of metal. Pre-war money exists but nobody uses it for anything in-game; it's traded in the 'misc' category along with scrap metal and boxes of prewar detergent. I've millicanoned that it's used as toilet paper. Pre-war coins appear in only one place, as a collection of Lincoln pennies that were found in the Museum of History.

Elsewhere in the Fallout world, we've seen the use of bottlecaps, casino chips (New Vegas), paper currency and gold coinage (NCR, although the gold-backed paper currency became faith and credit currency after NCR gold mines were destroyed), gold and silver currency (Caesar's Legion uses their own coinage), and the pull tabs from prewar soda cans (Fallout Tactics, I think). There are varying exchange rates, or at least that's how I think of the fact that your New Vegas character is assumed to have caps for money and can get different prices for Legion or NCR currency at different vendors.

[genarti]

Trowa's canon has money, but what denomination(s) it's in and who's minting or guaranteeing it and what form the currency takes isn't specified at all in canon that I can remember. Nor in Millicanon, I don't think! I think we've all been handwavily using electronic credit/debit/whatever transactions, while assuming that cash is still around in some form. The Earth is a unified government, so presumably currency at least theoretically is likewise unified, but the colonies might not be on the same system.

In conclusion: I hadn't thought about it in detail, and handwave.

Clare's world uses cash that looks like little metal bars -- like a thin dowel sliced up into segments, but made of metal. It's hard to tell what denominations they come in, and if they're given a name I forget it. Clare, like most Claymores, gets a stipend but rarely needs anything, so if she does need to buy something she tends to just overpay and move on while the merchant is gaping at her.

Regan and River's canon talks about credits and about platinums. They're different amounts -- whether they're different denominations, or if it's just that platinums are mostly used for stuff on the black market where you can sell for higher prices to people who can't buy through the official channels, I dunno. Some of the guidebook stuff for canon has paper bills; I don't believe that's what the actual cash looks like, because it has nonsense 'Arabic' put on by someone who doesn't know how Arabic letters connect, but I do take that as an indication that paper money exists.

Thor... canonically, who knows! Canon hasn't specified for Asgard, although of course Earth is more or less modern-day Earth with all the monetary systems you might expect. (And possibly a few extras in made-up countries, depending on if those countries from comicsverse exist in the MCU.) Millicanonically, Asgard does have cash money in some form, but Thor as a prince doesn't deal with it a lot. He has people for that. He could get cash if he wanted it, of course, but mostly it's a "bill the palace later, thanks!" kind of situation. (This, of course, is one of many factors contributing to Thor's occasional blithe thoughtlessness.) Whatever form that Asgardian currency takes, it's probably shiny.