167 Chapter 164 Finishing Up The Meeting (1/2)
There was a crash from outside the castle, and everyone was turning in alarm, except for Joseph and Stella. The huge wooden double doors flung open and the lesser dragon, Nidhogg, barged into the room.
”Sorry I'm late, your majesty, but I had to threaten to burn a group of people who were bothering me about what the current currency will be. I don't suppose you've had a chance to think up what it will be?”
”Nidhogg, it's only been a day,” cried Stella, annoyed.
”It's alright, I've already decided what it will be. Listen carefully as I explain it.”
”Sweet! Okay, go ahead!” said Nidhogg, sitting and focusing on him.
”The currency for my kingdom will be a series of coins. They will be made of essential metal or stone, depending on their values. Each coin will have a hole in the center, that people can see through from one side, but not the other. The side you can't see through, will have my mage mark, as proof of its authenticity.”
”But, your majesty, when ever would you have the time to deal with so much coinage? For the entire kingdom, that would be a monstrous undertaking!” exclaimed Nidhogg, horrified.
”I fully intend to abuse my magic to make the coins. Now, each coin will have two sizes, with the larger being worth double the smaller. The oric will be the smallest denomination, and will consist of an orichalc.u.m circle about the size of a dime. It is also the only coin that will not have a larger size.
”The next coin will be called the quartz, and will be shaped as a square. It will consist of a magical essential quartz with gold veins running through it. It will be worth five oric.
”After that will be the emerald, a hexagon made of pure emerald worth five quartz or twenty-five oric.
”The citrine will come next, and it will be in the shape of a pentagon made of citrine worth five emerald, twenty-five quartz, or one hundred twenty-five oric.
”Next would be the sapphire. It will be a triangle sapphire worth five citrine, twenty-five emerald, one hundred twenty-five quartz, or six hundred twenty-five oric.
”The last coin will be a ruby in the shape of a diamond that is twice as long as it is wide. It will be worth five sapphire, twenty-five citrine, one hundred twenty-five emerald, six hundred twenty-five quartz, or three thousand one hundred twenty-five oric.”
”So, we're working in multiples of fives?” asked Nidhogg, thinking hard.
”Correct, and I don't really expect many people to deal with sapphires or rubies.”
”Why would rubies be the top currency?” asked the lesser dragon, confused.
”Because they match Stella's eyes.”
Everyone was quiet for a moment, as they all glanced at her, but she ignored them, taking another plate of cookies out of her purse to start eating.
”What keeps people from duplicating any of these?” asked Nidhogg, licking his lips as he glanced at the cookies.
”It takes pretty tight mana control to get the gold to grow through the quartz in such a way as to connect to the rune on the reverse side correctly. In theory, people could duplicate the oric, as it is just enchanted orichalc.u.m, but it is worth more in other things than just a coin, by the time they have the skill at a level to be able to duplicate the coin. And I also intend to make coin testers to verify that my mana was the mana used to create the coin.”
”I can't wait to start distributing these… When do you think you might have the first batch ready?”
Joseph glanced up at the ceiling as he ran through his schedule for that evening.
”I should be able to get a couple million coins of each of the lesser three by morning. Do you think you could swing by to pick them up?”
Nidhogg nodded his head exuberantly, then turned to leave, before pausing and turning back to bow, then continuing his rush out of the room.
Andrew raised his hand to ask a question.
”Yes, Andrew?”