Money and Equipment

The countries of Urova, the Hadradan Empire and (indeed) much of the known world rely on precious metals and gems to facilitate trade. Coins of gold, silver and copper are minted by most of the civilised societies, although such trinkets have less value outside major centres of trade. Gold pieces many be exchangeable for goods and services in Uris and many large towns in Norandor but far away to the west in deepest Maldomoor one has to rely on barter to fulfil one's needs.

Of the races only dwarves and humans mint their own money. Gnomes, are happy to acknowledge the value of cash but tend to rely on gems within their own society. Halflings, subsumed as they are by human culture, use human currencies or whatever else they can lay their hands on. The orcs and goblins use other people's money where ever possible, and no-one knows what bizarre economics are put into practise by the elves.

The main minters of metal coinage are The Dwarven Kingdoms, The Hadradan Empire and Norandor (in that order). Even two-hundred years after they left the continent a great deal of the money in circulation is still Hadradan. Very little money in circulation among humans is dwarven because the humans and dwarfs have only been trading for the last thirty-two years.

Because of the many different coins that are in circulation around Urova the value of coins are based on their weight and their purity. Dwarven gold is, for example much purer than the stuff the Hadradans use so a dwarven gold coin of will be worth more than a Hadradan one, even if it is the same size.

As a note, platinum coins do exist although they are not in general circulation. They are not currently minted in Norandor, so any that are found probably originate from Hadradan times. Dwarven platinum coins are called abbaths after Abbathor, the dwarven god of greed.

In the following tables "PHB Term" means the name of the currency that appears in the Player's Handbook and other D&D source material. "Relative worth" is the value of a coin compared to 1 Hadradan Gold Piece. Hadradan and Norandan money have the same relative worths.

Norandan pennies (copper pieces) are scored down the middle and can easily be snapped in half into two half-pennies or ha'pennies. Ha'pennies are actually much more common than the pennies themselves. Most Norandan coins are stamped with images of Urova's moons, some have the face of the current King or of Uros himself.

Hadradan currency is stamped with the face of the current emperor. Coins in circulation may have any number of past emperors on them - metal being renowned for lasting longer than people.

Dwarven currency is by far the most elaborate and precious of all money. Each coin is as much a work of art as it is a unit of trade, with the most intricate of designs cunningly crafted onto the tiny pieces of metal. Dwarven coins are different depending on what clanhold they were minted in., and will often have the name of the minter as well as the chief of the clanhold, engraved around the outside edge. Images on the coins vary with the whims of the creator but hammers, axes and large bearded men are by far the most common. The dwarves also have more varieties of coins than any other society.

As can be seen from the table, Dwarven coins have a higher relative worth than either Hadradan or Norandan money. Because of the purity of the ores that dwarves use, most people will acknowledge that a dwarven coin is worth about twice as much as its Hadradan equivalent. A Dwarven gold piece is worth the equivalent of two Hadradan gold pieces. Items on sale in Dwarven towns or strongholds will be advertised as a costing only half the price quoted in the Player's Handbook, but unless the PCs are using Dwavren money they will still have to part with twice as much.

Of the coins that have no PHB equivalent: Pebbles are tiny circles of iron, so small that much of the detail on them is lost to the naked eye. Two-headers are actually two very thin coins, one of iron and one of copper, that have been minted together into one piece. The coin is iron on one side and copper on the other. Electrum is an alloy of silver and gold, the dwarven dwanos is made of electrum and is worth the equivalent of one Hadradan gold piece. Electrum has half the value of gold. Rumours that dwarves forge coins out of precious mithral are groundless. Dwarves value that metal far too highly to use it in such a base manner.

Please follow this link for details on the availabilty of magic items and equipment in the Iourn campaign setting. I grant you this section is a little out of place at the moment, but as the site is further reorganised things will better slot into place.