give 1200 coins hairy

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I beleive AC has the right idea, if not the exact process. It seems the most likely, and in fact was what I had considered when reading the first post.

Good job.

I'd suggest the staff adopt this method, perhaps document it, and so forth.

[Anonymous]

Huh, obsidian is a real material?  I'd assumed it was made up for Arm...
:shock:

[Angela Christine]

Obsidian is volcanic glass.  Often black, but it occurs in a variety of other colours as well.

http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/mineralo/obsidian/obsidian.htm

AC

[Ghost]

You know it is used "a large" for thousand sids.

And "a small" for hundred sids.

If I have 1250 coins in my pack, I say " I have a large two small and fifty coins. "  

I was thinking it works that way.  You dot count all the money one by one, but you give it as a large one small one and coins etc.

[John]

If I have 1250 coins in my pack, I say " I have a large two small and fifty coins. "

I'd be more inclined to say "1 large, two small and half a dozen double handfuls"

I like using the term "handful" for 5 (so double-handful being 10).

[Delirium]

If I have 1250 coins in my pack, I say " I have a large two small and fifty coins. "

I'd be more inclined to say "1 large, two small and half a dozen double handfuls"

I like using the term "handful" for 5 (so double-handful being 10).

Oooh, I like that. Don't mind if I steal it.

[Ghost]

Sure.. But you know the rule?

You can only steal the coins.  If you steal 30 coins when I have a large, you have to emote exchanging the coins and putting most back into my pocket

[Angela Christine]

Not a handfull, a hand.  A hand of coins is five coins, because a hand has five digits (usually).  A "handfull" of coins is merely "some," it depends on the size of the hand.  A half-giant calling 5 coins a handfull would be dumb.


AC

[spawnloser]

Whoever said 'a large' was one coin, Ghost?  Until the coins come in larger denominations, they are all 1 'sid coins to me.  Also, if you have 'a large' and I successfully steal some of it from you, I think that I should just 'ooc Hey man, I just stole your large from you and only got 73 coins, could you give me the rest of that thousand, since I obviously made my skill check?'  Seriously, why would I have to give anything back?  I am the one that succesfully stole from your dumb ass that has all your money in one big coin that is easier to lift.

[SpyGuy]

Clearly if we had different denominations of coins you'd need to be able to steal them as wholes.  That would probably be one of the harder things to code and one of the reasons why RPing different coin denominations is inappropriate.

That being said I like ACs idea of melting the 'sid.  I don't know if its feasible in RL but this is a fantasy world so, there you go.  It would also mean weighing the coins is probably how most merchants bother to do their business.

[spawnloser]

Ever tried melting a rock?  WAY hard.  I can imagine it is possible, but unlikely.  It is far more likely that weight is how coins are standardized in Armageddon and that using a scale is how it would most easily be measured.

[Dracul]

Ever heard of a grand? In dollars....there still isn't a thousand dollar bill (american dollar as the reference)

I beleive the original poster might have meant a large and two smalls as a way of saying it, not as literally a large sid, two small sids. etc.

It's a way of expression.

[Angela Christine]

Ever tried melting a rock?  WAY hard.  I can imagine it is possible, but unlikely.  

Melting granite is hard, but obsidian is basically glass.  We melt glass all the time, well, not me personally, but, you know, people.  Most cheap glassware is made by melting and molding glass.  Look carefully and you can see the mold creases, these have to be filed off, but that is much less skilled work than precision carving.  

We know that there is some glass blowing going on somewhere, so the technology to evenly melt glass exists.  Molding is less skilled and less labour intensive then glass blowing since most of the work can be done by unskilled labour, so I assume molding also exits.  Maybe even a press, like the ones used to manufacture communion wafers.  


People have often wondered why you can't turn obsidian shards into obsidian coins using the stonecarving or jewelery making skills.  Molded coins would account for this in a way that carved coins does not.  If coins can be carved by slave artisans, they should also be carvable but anyone skilled at carving small bits of stone.  But if they are molded, then only someone with the ability to melt glass (or perhaps an exceptional artist) could counterfeit the coins.  Although if there is only one denomination of coin, counterfeiting probably isn't a huge problem anyway.

AC

[RideTheDivide]

From some really smart person's web page:

It has long been known that an obsidian with considerable water becomes fluid before the blowpipe at a rather low temperature but on continued heating it loses its water and thereafter can be made liquid only at a much higher temperature.

So we can assume that the "raw" obisidan might be melted and then shaped into coins that would - after having been heated and having shed some water - be very difficult to re-melt.

[spawnloser]

The difference, AC, is that obsidian is volcanic glass.  You pretty much have to get it to the temperature that it was at when molten.  Silicate glass, which is what you're thinking off, is made of softer stuff and melts at a much lower temperature, being less dense.  Obsidian would be difficult to get to the melting point.

[Jacques]

So we just need someone who decides to create a Krathi-stonecarver and they can be the perfect counterfitter? Sounds like an idea for someone's next character!  :twisted:

[Angela Christine]

From some really smart person's web page:

It has long been known that an obsidian with considerable water becomes fluid before the blowpipe at a rather low temperature but on continued heating it loses its water and thereafter can be made liquid only at a much higher temperature.

So we can assume that the "raw" obisidan might be melted and then shaped into coins that would - after having been heated and having shed some water - be very difficult to re-melt.

Cool.  So that's where all the water went!



Glass doesn't need to be melted, it is already a liquid.  If you can't generate heat you could instead just put the glass on top of the molds and wait millions of years for it to pour into the molds.    http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?articleID=000E7305-705E-1C71-9EB7809EC588F2D7&catID=3&topicID=13


AC

[LazySpawN]

Well, considering that Zalanthas has little to no water, I doubt that much of the obsidian on the mud has much water in it.

[JollyGreenGiant]

Glass as a liquid vs. a solid is one of those amusing things that scientists and engineers argue over.  Ask a ChemE or an ME, and they may well tell you it's a solid.

[Foley]

what about blocks of obsidian? Sorry, I was just trying to think of something that would fit in a brief case, it'd be so cool if merchants and guild type people went around with leather and wood briefcases full of obsidian blocks or slabs. Maybe.

[Angela Christine]

The trouble with larger slabs or blocks of obsidian is that they would be easier and less expensive to counterfiet than the small coins.  And if a 100 coin value slab weighs the same as 100 coins (1 stone) but is easier to counterfiet, then what is the point?

Having pondered this long and hard, I've come up with what I believe is the ideal solution.  Of course no one will disagree with it's idealness, because as I have said before disagreeing with me can only lead to your destruction.  (Or possibly a difference of opinion).  The solution is gemstones.  The problem with gemstones is that shops don't accept them, and they can be hard to unload when you want to buy something.  

The solution: Nenyuk gem buyers.  Each bank gets a second NPC who only buys precious stones, and buys them for 80-90% of their objective value (as seen with the value command).  The NPC doesn't have to -sell- anything, he buys the gems and keeps them.  That way the House stores some of it's wealth in a form less fragile than glass coins.  At another level of interaction (ie. VNPCs) Nenyuk can sell or trade the precious stones with other wealthy Houses.  The NPC could sell them at 110% of their value, for people that want to store their wealth that way, but it is unnecessary.  They might only buy stones with a value of at least 100 'sid, so they don't get glutted with a bunch of cheap crystals.


This would create a market for high-end gemstones, giving miners and scavengers something else to shoot for.

And a velvet bag filled with diamonds and rubies would be really cool to carry around.


AC

[Dracul]

Aye, gemstones aren't a bad idea.

I think that your suggested percentages might be slightly lower, since the gemstones would be considered as liquidated wealth all on their own. Nenyuk would moreso have a small tax on it, rather than a huge profit similiar to the common merchanter ideal.

Are there actually enough precious stones in zalanthas to justify this? I wouldn't know...and it's probally even ic information anyways, even if pretty minor.

[Angela Christine]

You're right, a relatively small "transaction fee" might be more appropriate.

To work it would have to be like the Jal salt yard or the Templar mining office: you offer what you have, they tell you what they will pay, and that's it.  No bartering, this is what we'll pay, take it or leave it.  

AC

[Seeker]

Some good discussion points here.

Seeker

[Sir Diealot]

You did a thread necromancy.. to link to the beginning of the thread you raised from the dead?   :shock:   wtf, mate?