Crafting Idea: Counterfeit 'Sid

[Saitorr]

Huh?  Huuuuuuuuuuuh?

[Agent_137]

complicated, but interesting.

[Anonymous]

I can see a high level merchant with a high level stone crafting skill pull it off...

[Angela Christine]

Meh.  Why would you want to do the work of a labour slave?  There is no IC indication that there are multiple denominations, so you'd probably be stuck counterfieting the 1 sid coin.  A shard of obsidian is worth more than 1 sid, so you'd lose money even on successful attempts.


AC

[Mr.Camel]

So if I break my coins in halves I'm richer?

[Jacques]

Nope. You're broke (like the coins! Heh... I slay me). Obsidian coins have a specific size, that is reasonably precise. Not just any hunk of 'sid is a coin - coins are produced within fairly rigid specifications. As an example, but without getting too IC, there are some things in-game that inform players that a stack of X obsidian coins is *always* the same height. Half a coin just isn't going to be spendable. Might make a good arrowhead, though. (As an aside, I'd always wondered why people couldn't just file coins down to make obsidian arrowheads - guess the coins are probably too small or something.  :wink: )

[Mr.Camel]

I agree. I meant breaking my coins to make shards of them, since AC said shards are worth more.

[Anonymous]

Counterfeiting only works when the value of the currency far exceeds the material that the currency is made out of, making the effort worth it.  At least, that's how I see it.

[wizturbo]

The economic system of using obsidian coins is flawed anyway.  A piece of sid that size would be useless, so the inherent value of the coin is practically null.  But, something had to be used for game terms, and i guess sid coins are better then something else.

[Realedazed]

In game, I'll have a pile of Tuluki/Allenaki coins (I think) in my inventory, so I figured that they where small chunks of obsidian with some offical mark on them.  Espeically since there are so many other things made out of obsidian, too.

[creeper386]

The fact that the coin itself has no value isn't really bad. Since the material it's made out of is worth more then the coin. Why counterfeit? That combined with strict laws and harsh government it'd basically make counterfeiting a stupid trade. Lets make a chunk of obsidian into ten coins when it's worth fifty coins!!! YAY!

It just means, they probably had an access of obsidian at some point.

Creeper

[My 2 sids]

WOO!  This is right up there with crafting stacked decks of cards!

Sense when is counterfeit money made out of the same stuff as real money?  Take a rock, work it to the right size, paint it, and for all practical porpoises it's now Obsidian.  And before you all start objecting... when was the last time any of your characters actually role-played looking in a pouch to find out just what was inside?  I thought so.  Just make this a craft able item, (I'd say pick-pocks for guild  or maybe a good con artest?... who else would study how to counterfeit obsidian?)  and don't let the NPC stores take bad sids.  As for the rest... give everyone one command that will let them test the money to see if it's fake or real.  Think... old western miners biting down on a bit to see if it's real.  No one would ever have to be cheated out of sid –if- they took the time to do the command to look to make sure its real coins.

[Larrath]

I don't think it's extremely practical, personally, even though it doesn't make sense to me that a coin marking on a bit of obsidian would make it worth -less- than it previously did.

Let's not forget, by the way, that the 50-sid chunks of obsidian are all the size of small chairs.  It's not a hand-sized piece.


I agree that not everyone tends to look inside a pouch of 'sid, but I think it can be played out.


As it stands, carving rock, painting it black and polishing it until it looks like a coin is hardly worth it, practically or financially.

[Marc]

Obsidian is only worth more when it is in usuable chunks AC.  Big giant globs of the stuff show up in the desert all the time.  Don't you think that little tiny bits show up around them and are just unrepresented?  I see your average obsidian coin as tiny.  Two stacked pennies or so.  Easily made, easily lost, easily carried.  It uses a local resource that is readily available to anyone willing to take a small risk and use a lot of sweat to get it (like wood in the north.  Wood coins on the horizon?).  I think your average coin, if not properly shaped and marked, is worth as much as your average pebble: nothing.

Counterfeit money?  Sure, why not?  But I think there is a good reason it is made by slaves.  Tedious, repetative, and not at all worth your time.

RP it out!  Send in logs!  I'm sure the staff would give you 15-20 whole coins for every day you sit and do nothing but collect rocks and engrave them and thats almost as good as the skill.

[Angela Christine]

Obsidian is only worth more when it is in usuable chunks AC.  Big giant globs of the stuff show up in the desert all the time.  Don't you think that little tiny bits show up around them and are just unrepresented?  

Sure, but the crafting code can only use objects that are represented.  The smallest raw obsidian object available is the obsidian shard.  An obsidian shard might be as big as many coins, but it is irregularily shaped.  I don't recall the exact description at the moment, but as I recall most shards are described as sort of wedge shaped, with a thick side (where you would put the handle, if you were making a tool) and a narrow edge (which would be cutting blade or edge if you were making a tool).  The sharp narrow edge is likely useless, especially if it is thinner than a coin.  The tendency of obsidian to shatter means that even a pretty good carver will probably lose more than half of the shard as tiny glass splinters.  Useless yet painful tiny glass splinters.  Some of the tattoos of coins make it look like the engraving on them is quite precise, forming recognisable images, not just stylistic symbols.

Ok, I may have been going a bit far to say that the raw obsidian is worth more than the coins that could be made from it, a very skilled carver could probably make more coins than he could get selling it to a raw materials shop.  However, a craftsman of that caliber could also make a lot of other things from the raw obsidian.  Will he be able to make more money by labouriously carving out tiny coins, or by whipping out obsidian hide scrapers, obsidian arrowheads, obsidian knives, obsidian swords, obsidian ornaments, etc.?  If he's good he might make 5-10 coins out of a shard, or he could make a knife or hide scraper out of the same shard in less than half the time.  It just doesn't seem like a good use of time.


All that assumes that the coins are in fact carved.  It is also just barely possible that the coins are molded.  Volcanic glass would certainly be very difficult to melt, but who knows what they are doing over there in the Templar's quarter all day?  There doesn't seem to be enough fuel for a conventional glassworks, but there are other ways to melt glass.  Something involving Krathis and Rukkians, perhaps.  Or there could be a volcanic vent deep under Tektolnes' Tower, and they somehow tap into that geothermal heat to melt the obsidian -- it isn't that far fetched, all the obsidian is proof that the area was volcanically active at one time.  Molded coins would all be the same size, weight and thickness, like the actual coded coins we deal with.  Molded coins would also support detailed images (such as the ones seen on some coin tattoos) much more easily than having those images individually engraved.  It would also, incidentally, make the coins that much harder to couterfiet because it would take a lot of polishing to make a carved coin look like a molded coin.


Just a thought.

AC