No one at that level of civilization is stupid enough to accept fiat money.
If
the Lunar Emperor tried to debase the currency in peacetime, he would get
a palace revolt, just like happened to Nero. No other government that
Orlanthi are likely to run into has the power to even _try_ to force people
to accept copper-clad zinc as real clacks, at face value (or other coins
without a modern US parallel).
This means that occasional rumors of government X debasing its coinage
will cause a run on older coins, and your new coins may not be accepted
(certainly not at face) even if those rumors turn out to be false. Read
some
of the history of Roman coinage with respct to the Germanic tribes for good
ideas (ex, deliberately coining using century-old dies and false-aging the
coins
to pay barbarians, since they don't trust modern currency).
I would doubt that Archimedes Principle is known, or a magical equivalent, except to the major Trade gods and certain fairly civilized Knowledge cults (ie, Lhankor Mhy in the universities [Knowledge temples], but not the tribal Lawspeakers).
The Kralori Empire might use paper money, like China did, but those are as much certificates of deposit as currency.
PS: Shouldn't this have been asked on the Glorantha Digest?
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