I was thinking of the English coinage in the 17th century which was
refused pretty much anywhere except England - indeed, English merchants
wanted payment in Spanish coin. The English coin was mixed with lead,
shaved and otherwise of far less value than the nominal 20
shillings/pound of silver. The Piece of Eight however, coming from a
Spain with more silver than it knew how to spend, was of a far higher
silver content.
Yes, I suppose you could argue that everyone involved maintained a sort
of mental record of the degree to which each coin was debased - and that
is represented well with HQ kind of mechanics.
Respectfully however, the scenario I described is, IMO, more
interesting. The troopers are being asked to risk life and limb for an
abstract concept that none of them understand. ( I don't believe the
average trooper cares about silver content, so long as the local girls
take the coin).
donald_at_... wrote:
> In message <40DD5EE8.8070901_at_...> Mark Wallace writes:
>
>>I doubt anyone cares about counterfitting... the issue is seniorage. Who
>>gets the difference between the face value of the coin and the silver
>>content?
>
>
> AFAIK there should be no difference between the face value of the
> coin and the value of the metal content. Seniorage is a pretty modern
> idea, previous attempts to devalue coinage (Henry VIII springs to mind
> here) didn't work because people in general and merchants in particular
> valued the coins less so that sooner or later the government had to
> go back to a gold or silver standard. Seniorage relies on people
> having enough trust in the government's promise to accept tokens at
> face value.
>
>
>>If the answer to that question is not "Someone who paid a huge bribe to
>>official government for the privilege", expect military action.
>>Military action where the officers involved resent the duty, and are
>>open to being bribed. What a cool scenario seed.
>
>
> Which is the same scenario as counterfitting, except it introduces
> an anacronistic concept of coinage which isn't supported by anything
> published on Glorantha.
>