Obsidian coins and the manufacture thereof

[NoteworthyFellow]

You know, there is no in-game description of Allanaki obsidian coins in-game, or if there is, I've never been able to get it by typing "look coin".  Regardless, I've always been curious what they look like: how do you imagine them?  Has there been any official staff word on the subject?  Are they uniform?  Do they come in different denominations?  Is there are a design on them or are they just simple obsidian discs?

Also, how are they made?  Allanak obviously doesn't have the sort of production facilities the average nation's currency mint would, and obsidian is a very brittle material, not moldable like metal is.  Does the Highlord have some absurd amount of slaves that constantly chip away at obsidian to make coins down to a fine detail?  Is it all done through some horrifying magick that blasts a huge monolith of obsidian into several thousand little coins?

[Tisiphone]

You can actually look at one, if you have only one in your inventory.

Edited to add: I'm really not trying to sound like an ass. I have no idea about anything else you've asked, though, and was trying to give what little help I could.

[Maso]

There are hints around the city at the manufacture of coins.

[NoteworthyFellow]

You can actually look at one, if you have only one in your inventory.

Ah, that'd explain why I've never been able to.  I never thought to just have one in my inventory!  Time to log on in...

...Also, next time I'm playing in 'Nak, I'll just have to keep my eyes open!  Thanks for the responses.

[Ourla]

Regardless, I've always been curious what they look like: how do you imagine them?

I've always imagined them as a little larger than an American quarter, thick, roughly-carved and roughly-polished slices of round black stone.  I like to emote a bag of more than fifty or so sid weighing quite a bit, and clacking around all noisy.  I would say they're as uniform as talented stone-age technology would allow for. 

As for what they look like, good question.  Don't they have a dragon on them...?

[Doppelganger]

I've always been curious what they look like: how do you imagine them?  Has there been any official staff word on the subject?

http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,22075.0.html

[RogueGunslinger]

You can actually look at one, if you have only one in your inventory.

No you can't. Just tried.

Sorry. I misunderstood what you were saying.

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l coin
You don't see anything unusual about it.

Edit2: I'd just like to say that I hate how corpses don't have the same description as the live version of whatever you look at. Like to see that changed in 2.arm.

[Tisiphone]

Code Select Expand

l coin
You don't see anything unusual about it.

Either they've changed things, or there are two different kinds of coin in the game. One kind comes together to form piles of allanaki coins, and the other simply piles of coins. The former has a description while the latter gives you this string. Don't go out of your way to look it up, though, the description's nothing stunning.

[Maso]

Yeah, I have seen a coin desc.

[FiveDisgruntledMonkeysWit]

Personally, I try not to think about it too hard. I usually picture them as flat disks of obsidian as opposed to actual 'coins'. Obsidian is very brittle and I think it'd be impossible to craft coins out of them.
Some of the obsidian crafts you can make are pretty redonk. Maybe Zalanthan obsidian can be carved easier than actual obsidian?

[RogueGunslinger]

Personally, I try not to think about it too hard. I usually picture them as flat disks of obsidian as opposed to actual 'coins'. Obsidian is very brittle and I think it'd be impossible to craft coins out of them.
Some of the obsidian crafts you can make are pretty redonk. Maybe Zalanthan obsidian can be carved easier than actual obsidian?

I've always pictured them as flat, roughly diamond-shaped/elliptical shards/sivers that are roughly the same size as each other

     ^
   (/ /)
  (/ / /)
   (/ /)
     V

Something like that... heh.

[psionic fungus]

This might be totally insane, but is it possible to melt down obsidian and pour it into forms?

I assume glass deposits are used in this way, why not obsidian?

Also, obsidian can be carved as well as knapped, so coins and other objects in game might not be as impossible as some would expect:

[Incognito]

The mining and crafting of obsidian into coins or weapons is, in itself, a very interesting topic.
The economics of choosing this particular material for various purposes on Zalanthas, also makes for fancy reading.
It may be something we all, as PCs take for granted, but like all things Zalanthan, there's a clear and logical reasoning behind it.

Without going into much IC info, if you really did wish to find out more about this particular material and forming it into various items, you might be able to fathom some information by contacting the Allanaki Templarate, House Nenyuk and House Salarr.

Also, if you wanna take a tour of the mint and mining sites, you could get arrested and thrown into one of the mines, that'll be enough to give you an immediate first-hand education in 'sid'.

[Rhyden]

This might be totally insane, but is it possible to melt down obsidian and pour it into forms?

I assume glass deposits are used in this way, why not obsidian?

Also, obsidian can be carved as well as knapped, so coins and other objects in game might not be as impossible as some would expect:

Magick. Duh.

[Angela Christine]

Some tattoos of coins have detailed descriptions of the coin's face.  If the tattoos are accurate, they are more elaborate than mere disks of obsidian.




You can make pressed glass coins.  As seen here:  http://www.hotglassworks.net/coins/index.html



It might be possible to re-melt obsidian and then make molded or pressed coins out of it.  You'd need incredible heat, but with magick all things are possible.  Molded or pressed coins would discourage counterfeiting.

[psionic fungus]

See, logic works on Zalanthas too!   

[musashi]

Those are pretty! And they just gave me a new way to envision the coins in the game.

I had always imagined them looking something like this:



But AC's picture is way cooler.

[NoteworthyFellow]

Huh, suppose it never occurred to me to imagine them that way, how they are in AC's picture, but it makes sense, since obsidian is a type of glass itself.

Either way, finding out the truth IC could make an interesting dwarven focus...

[psionic fungus]

This gives me another idea... Glass/obsidian coins could be formed/stamped into a shape like "-__-", allowing them to be easily stackable.  Crazy! 

[musashi]

That sounds like a great cultural tidbit for Arm2.

[RogueGunslinger]

This gives me another idea... Glass/obsidian coins could be formed/stamped into a shape like "-__-", allowing them to be easily stackable.  Crazy! 

I was actually thinking this same thing. Only my imagination went wild. I had the idea to call 100 coins a Stack, and a thousand a would be a Tower.

Bitchin' isn't it?

[Maybe42or54]

For sure.

[Shiroi Tsuki]

You should totally start doing that.

[Sarte]

Wouldn't it be rabical if it were possible for some entrepreneurial soul to start a large scale 'sid counterfitting ring?

[musashi]

Wouldn't it be rabical if it were possible for some entrepreneurial soul to start a large scale 'sid counterfitting ring?

Till Tek killed them all with his mind.