Most nations try to maintain a broadly comparable currency system across Eleath, even if the decorative aspects of the coins they mint vary. However, coins from the Fireflow and Keesal are always trusted. Those from the Gelb receive a little more scrutiny, and for those from other areas a balance is generally required, rather than just counting - weights of minted coins can be very variable in the fiefdoms and tribal lands.
Everyday transactions are dealt with in silver “hawks” and copper “sparrows”, with 10 sparrows to a hawk. Small change is spent in “bits”, a bit being ⅛ of a sparrow. Small copper coins are minted as bits in civilised places, but sparrow coins being cut into 4 or 8 parts is common in more remote areas.
For those wanting to make an impression, or with serious wealth to carry, gold “eagles” worth 10 hawks are in circulation, and while rarely seen by the average populace platinum “dragons” worth 10 eagles are minted for royal treasuries and others with great wealth.
Currency Summary
| 1 silver hawk | = | 10 copper sparrows |
| 1 copper sparrow | = | 8 bits |
| 1 golden eagle | = | 10 silver hawks |
| 1 platinum dragon | = | 10 golden eagles |
A selection of Silver Hawks from across Eleath (Fiefdom, Fireflow, Keesal and Gelb examples.)
The Silver Economy
Eleath operates on a silver economy, with hawks being the everyday coinage. All prices in 5e sources in gold pieces should be treated as silver pieces - so for example a “modest” lifestyle would normally be 1gp / day, but in the Eleath setting it would instead be 1sp / day. In Eleath, gold coins are precious, and have real value and impact - silver is the everyday currency.
All other amounts can be converted accordingly, so prices stated in sp translate to copper sparrows, cp translate to bits (admittedly with a slight conversion error), pp convert to gp, etc.
This should be relatively painless to operate, but I feel it adds to verisimilitude, and I hope it will make treasure feel more valuable, rather than just “more coin.”
See also: Trade and Money