Monetary System
Precious metals: Stuff which is of no or very little use by itself, but doesn't degrade much in typical conditions and is rather hard to find or labour-intensive to acquire.
List: Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, Aluminium (pre-Hall-Héroult process), Copper, rare fantasy metals
Common alloys: Electrum (Gold-Silver 4:1 to 1:1), Rose Gold (Gold-Copper 3:1), Red Gold (Gold-Copper 1:1), White Gold (Gold-Palladium or Gold-Nickel 9:1), Spangold (Gold-Copper-Aluminium 15:4:1), Purple Gold (Gold-Aluminium 4:1), Billon (Copper-Silver 3:2), Brass (Copper-Zinc 3:1), Bronze (Copper-Tin 7:1), Aluminium Bronze (Copper-Aluminium 9:1), Cupronickel (Copper-Nickel 3:1), Nickel Silver (Copper-Nickel-Zinc 3:1:1), Duralumin (Aluminium-Copper 19:1)
Translated to game terms (assuming a 2x2 matrix - four items - and a "dotting" matrix adding one item to nine):
- Mixes
- 3 Gold + 1 Silver -> Electrum (1)
- 3 Gold + 1 Copper -> Rose Gold
- 2 Gold + 2 Silver -> Electrum (2)
- 2 Gold + 1 Silver + 1 Copper -> Cheap Gold
- 2 Gold + 2 Copper -> Red Gold
- 1 Gold + 3 Silver -> Golden Silver (1)
- 1 Gold + 2 Silver + 1 Copper -> Golden Silver (2)
- 1 Gold + 1 Silver + 2 Copper -> Billon (2)
- 1 Gold + 3 Copper -> Billon (3)
- 3 Silver + 1 Copper -> Sterling Silver
- 2 Silver + 2 Copper -> Tibetian Silver
- 1 Silver + 3 Copper -> Billon (1)
- 3 Gold + 1 Alumnium -> Purple Gold
- 3 Copper + 1 Nickel -> Cupronickel
- 2 Copper + 1 Nickel + 1 Zinc -> Nickel Silver
- 3 Copper + 1 Zinc -> Brass
- 2 Copper + 2 Zinc -> Naval Brass
- 1 Copper + 3 Zinc -> White Brass
- 3 Copper + 1 Tin -> Bronze
- 3 Gold + 1 Palladium -> White Gold (1)
- 3 Gold + 1 Nickel -> White Gold (2)
- Level 2 Mixes
- 1 Brass + 1 Bronze -> Red Brass
- Dotting
- Aluminium with Copper -> Duralumin
- Copper with Aluminium -> Aluminium Bronze
- Copper with Zinc -> Gliding Metal
- Tin with Copper -> Pewter
- Silver with Platinum -> Platinum Sterling
- Level 2 Dorring
- Cheap Gold with Palladium -> White Gold (3)
- Rose Gold with Aluminium -> Spangold
- Brass with Aluminium -> Nordic Gold
- Brass with Manganese -> Manganese Brass
- Brass with Nickel -> Nickel Brass
Coins: Made of precious metals or their alloys, they have a *value* equal to its metal's value and a *form*, including *marks* which determine who *minted* them. Usually, a coin is accepted only in the origin territory for its full value, everywhere else you have to accept (up to 50%) less value.