Currency in the Five Realms

Long ago in Tirneach there were many different coins accepted by merchants and hoarded by misers. The Kingdom of Siabhal of course had its own coinage, long flat sheets of gold emblazoned with the faces of kings and queens and the various sigils of the Ruby Court. These are still commonly found, and even still accepted in some parts of Siabhal, particularly the great city of Iomra. The king and queen of the Amber Hall in Baol are supposed to have given enchanted coins to their most favoured subjects which would be spent and then appear again in the owner’s pocket the next day...although any putative examples found today do not share this magical property. In other parts of Tirneach, the most common coins in circulation were those brought over by canny traders from the east, who had convinced the folk of Tirneach that they had some worth. A commoner looking to go to market might use coins from as far away as the homeland of the Firetouched in their pocket. All this came to an end with the unification of the Five Realms.

Nowadays the sole currency of the Five Realms is the pingin (pronounced in the English language like pinyin), a small silver disc. There are different denominations and weights of pingin, such as five-weights and ten-weights. They are minted in Uasa, where silver is the most abundant precious metal. The weight of a pingin is prescribed by the courtiers of Uasa, whose agents will often turn up at markets and fairs throughout the Five Realms with their famous weighing scales, to ensure that the Réig’s coinage is not being adulterated or faked.

Of course in the more rural and backwoods parts of Tirneach such as Bruid or the highlands of Baol, having a load of silver on hand is just not practical or safe, and barter is still the order of the day. In order to prevent the silver coins simply being melted down and used for other purposes, there are strict (many say draconian...though never in earshot of the Drakeblooded) laws against tampering with the pingin, and anyone who does so, whether they be an artificer making a magical artefact or a merchant shaving off a few scraps of silver, can expect to face terrible retribution.

Coinage designs

• 

  1 pingin piece
  Draíod

• 

  5 pingin piece
  Bruid

• 

  10 pingin piece
  Baol

• 

  20 pingin piece
  Siabhal

• 

  50 pingin piece
  Uasa

Each of the coins used in Tirenach has a design that reflects a particular realm, bearing the arms and motto of the realm on a coin designed to reflect the realm in question.