BECMI Chapter 462 – Let’s Talk about Gold

“It’s a Craftcoin.” I held up a finger and pointed. “The Eismark coin in your hand is very standard. You’ll note it is slightly lighter than the Craftcoin, at exactly 95% of the weight. To magic, it has a value of exactly one gold piece for the purpose of Burning it to Invest or Infuse into magic.”

He eyed it calmly. “A blank coin would need to be 100%?” he judged, weighing the two in his palms and nodding agreement with the weight difference.

“Yes. The residual artistry of the dies and stamps used to make them is enough for them to qualify as a full gold coin. Mere coppers, but over thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of coins, it adds up.”

Clanholder Riksburl Leadfoot nodded slowly, passing both coins to the elder on his right to examine. “And this… Craftcoin?” he asked, knowing this was important.

I let my fingers spread in trio. “It is worththreegold coins, to magic.”

He blinked at me, as did the elders. “Three?” he asked, stroking his beard. “Not as much as platinum, but platinum is far rarer. Is this… important?” he asked, knowing that it was.

“If you only had ten pounds of gold, and you had to use it to make something you wanted, like, oh, a pair of boots that tied themselves to your feet, would you rather heap up a hundred gold coins to make a pair of boots, or a hundred craftcoins to make three sets of them?”

“This…” The answer was obvious, of course. “What is the downside of this?” he asked reasonably, not a fool. There had to be a catch.

“One tool, that is all magic allows. One tool between smith and craft. One cannot automate magical items. One cannot pour and stamp a Craftcoin. One cannot cast and mold armor you wish to be made magical. It all must be done with the maker’s own hands, one tool in their grasp. Triphammers, premade molds… none of that can be used.

“They must be made the old way, with skill and focus and the knowledge of the one who makes them. This rule is nigh-absolute without some very powerful exceptions, and forms a clear divide in high-end alchemy. On one side, you have high science, which requires automation and technical tools nigh impossible for any crafter to duplicate. The other side requires the personal touch and skill of a master craftsman’s soul, sinking into metal and gem, hide and cloth, helping it become something more.

“That restriction applies to Craftcoins. They cannot be stamped and cast. Oh, the blanks can be, they are just raw gold. But to have value beyond the weight and mass of the gold, each such coin must be engraved personally by a Craftsman. As they pour their heart into their craft, the Craftcoin grows in value with each embellishment, until it triples its value.”

“I see.” He folded his hands on the table before him. “And you wish all of our goldsmiths to begin making these Craftcoins?” he asked, getting to the heart of the matter.

“The standard payment for such things is one in three.” I also folded my hands before me. “Make two thousand craftcoins, keep a third of them. For purposes of magic, you have two thousand gold coins for Burning to make magic items. Enough, for example to make a magical Weapon,” I pulled out a plain yet elegant dagger on the table, “or two, if you have an Artificer or Priest to Infuse, rather than to Invest.” I laid a matching dagger down next to the first.

“Or… a Hammer? Or an Axe?” he asked, having some basics of the smithcraft of the Federation, if not true Artificing as of yet. A system where the cost was based on Enchantment desired, not the mass of the object to be Enchanted!

“Yes.”

The look he sent at the elder was profound, but I simply sat back as they murmured to one another. “This is not about speed, then,” he clarified.

“No. I could take fifty pounds of gold and make five thousand coins out of them in an hour at the Exchange. But then I’d have ten goldweight of coins, so why make them coins at all? Just pour an ingot and be done with it, if speed is all that desired.

“No, this is about maximum use of material, and keeping your crafters as busy as they want to be, getting the most out of every ounce of what they work with.”

“Does this work with other metals?” the elder on the right, Aegvun Hundrigger, asked quickly, his badge showing equal studs of all four of the noble metals.

“Yes. But the embellishment is limited to triple the value of the raw materials. So, for practical purposes, Craftcoins are restricted to gold and more valuable metals.”

The other elder, Sulvia Taurgleam, leaned forward, the silver embroidery on her badge indicating her specialty. “But jewelry of silver would be worth far more than silver coins by weight,” she said calmly. “It would require the same amount of work to detail a coin of silver as it would of gold?” she pressed.

“Magic does not care, at the most basic level. The quality level of that craftcoin you hold is not masterwork, and it matches the approximate skill of the base coin. Thus, it is triple the value.

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“As a finesmith, you know that making each piece of jewelry takes more effort than customizing a coin like this. If you want to make a silver necklace which you will fairly and honestly charge thirty gold coins for, and magic agrees with you, how long do you imagine it might take to do such a thing?” I asked her calmly.

They looked at one another. “Enough time to make ten coins?” Clanholder Riksburl answered uncertainly.

“Fifteen,” Elder Aegvun corrected him. “Silver is less valuable by a factor of ten. The value would be mostly derived from skill.”

“A fraction less, based on the value of the silver involved, which can vary tremendously depending on the design of chain and pendant,” the silversmith of them corrected, the others nodding agreement at the simple fact. “And naturally the quality of the work would have to be higher to justify the value. Proper master’s work is not done so easily.”

I inclined my head. “Yes. Magic acknowledges skill and spirit, but quality must reflect it. An unskilled student could make a fine necklace out of luck, but it is still not master’s work, and so magic will not acknowledge it as such.

“You are utterly correct in that making jewelry-level work is possible with craftcoins. That coin you are holding is not one.” I flipped my fingers over and slid another gold coin across the table.

All of them bent forward eagerly to see it. Before they could fetch one, I sent over a magnifying glass, too.

“Oh, my word,” breathed the Clanholder, staring at the eagle’s-head side through the magnifying glass. “This, this is fine art, Lady Edge! The detail, the edging, the elegance! I can see the veins of the feathers on the eagle!…”

I nodded, waiting patiently as they each took the chance to hold it and examine it thoroughly, muttering happily over the skill and craftsmanship involved.

“Its value?” the Clanholder asked after passing it away, quite impressed.

“To magic, that coin is worth fifty gold coin blanks of equal weight.”

“Can the Federation’s technology do this?” Elder Aegvun had to ask proudly. This was something he could accomplish, although he would have to go slowly and take care.

I slid another gold coin across to them. The Clanholder picked it up, and immediately frowned. He handed it to Elder Aegvun, who pulled out his own jeweler’s eye to look at it.

“This…” the dwarven elder hissed in disbelief. “There are details on here that are too small for me to see…”

“You have a keen eye.” There was a thump as I placed a thick and heavy tome upon the desk, earning all of their attention. Then another, another, and yet another, stacking them up to nearly my shoulder.

“If you had a magnifier strong enough, you would find that etched into the metal of that coin is the entire Official History of the human nation of Federyn,” I waved at the stack of books. “On the head side, of course,” I added after a knowing pause.

The dwarves all gaped at me. That level of detail was impossible for even a dwarf to match!

“To magic, that coin is worth one gold coin.” I held up a single finger. “It has no soul or spirit, and no living hand was responsible for making it. Too many tools between maker and product. In real terms, you could likely charge at least fifty gold for it as a curiosity and collectible, but magic doesn’t care for things like supply and demand. The value is what it is under magic’s rules, and a coin from Darkmoor four thousand years old that could fetch a thousand times its weight from a collector is worth exactly the same thing by weight to magic as one stamped yesterday. Tradeweight is not goldweight.”

It was placed back on the table and very firmly pushed back to me. I stowed it away, and the tomes vanished in a flutter of rose petals and shadows.

“Elders,” I stated simply, folding my fingers and looking at them, “I can, right now, drop two thousand pounds of gold upon you.” They stared at me in shock at the declaration. “That is potentiallytwo hundred thousand gold coins.

“If you but process them all into craftcoins, then you will earn two hundred thousand gold coin equivalents for Burning into magical items. The Federation will quite happily trade you at standard rates for that value in other magic items. They can consume the entirety of that amount of gold within ten days, without fail.”

The dwarves hissed in shock at that number. That was gold Burned, removed from the world, gone to make things of magic worth up to twice that value, depending on how it was used!

“If you make it all into jewelry… then the value is instead exactly as high as your skill allows you to make.”

All of their breaths hissed out together, staring at the three coins back on the table between us now.

One worth its weight in gold. One worth triple that weight. And one worth fifty times that weight!

Just little coins of gold...

“A ton of gold could keep us working for years,” Elder Aegvun had to say, shaking his long white beard slowly as he considered the potential.

“If that is true, both your numbers and your skill are lacking,” I stated mercilessly, and they had the wherewithal not to rebut me. “I would expect your first profits to go towards getting Shaping Tools, at the very least, making sure such things are employed by someone at all hours of the day, and setting up round-the clock schedules so that they are continuously used to best benefit.

“Then a Floating Forge, and an Anvil of Thunder. Get all three of them working, and you could potentially increase your crafting speed by a factor of eight.” All of their eyes widened in disbelief. “And that isafterthe magical increase to your speed and skill that they can provide, although the Anvil might see rather less work than an armor or weaponsmith would put to use.”

“And we could buy all of these…” the Clanholder murmured under his breath.

“You’ll have to bring in a lot of apprentices, teach them well, and get them to working. There’ll be enough work to keep them all busy for as much as they want to work,” I agreed calmly. “Dwarven skill turned directly to gold is what this means to you.

“It might behoove you to get all the clans in your Alliance together and see if you can get as many dwarves into apprenticeships as possible. I am aware you’ve not had the need in the past, but trust me when I say if you had a hundred finesmiths ready to work, we could keep them constantly busy with no effort whatsoever.”

Their breaths hissed out, and the Clanholder nodded urgently. “I will speak with them all quickly, Lady Edge!” he promised, not willing to, ah, leave gold on the table...