Currency
The people in the world of 'Song of Ice and Fire' use varying types of currencies, which is often depends on their origin and culture.
Contents
Westeros
Seven Kingdoms
Coins are the official Currency of the Seven Kingdoms, it's overseen by the Master of Coin and it's primarily minted by the king. This is not to say that bartering is unheard of; it is common in rural areas, up along the Wall, and between friends in towns and cities. A stranger in a town had better have coins, however few smallfolk would refuse to trade.
Type | Name | Value | Description |
---|---|---|---|
GOLD | Dragon | 210 Stags or 11,760 pennies | Golden dragons, bear the face of the king in whose time they were minted in, as well as his name.[1] During the rule of House Targaryen the other side bore the three headed Dragon on it's back. |
SILVERS | Stag | 7 stars or 56 pennies | Silver Stags, are known for the stag they bear, they were in use during the time of the The Hedge Knight, eighty years before Robert Baratheon came to power, so it's unlikely they are connected. |
Moon | 7 stags | ||
COPPERS | Star | 8 pennies | Copper pennies, usually bore the Seven-Pointed Star associated with the Faith of the Seven. |
Groat | 4 pennies | ||
Half Groat | 2 pennies | ||
Penny | ------- | ||
Halfpenny | half a penny |
Note: Half-Pennies, Pennies, Stars, Stags and Dragons are the most common currency; rarely does anyone have the change on levels between.
Also the specific values of each of the coins are not mentioned directly in the books and are based on a semi cannon source, the A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying game by Green Ronin.
Pre-Conquest currency
There are older coins still in use from before the War of Conquest. In A Feast for Crows we learn of the Gold coins of the Kingdom of the Reach, which where known as 'hands', they feature the hand-shaped sigil of House Gardener on one side and the face of a king on the other, with each coin roughly half the value of a golden dragon.[2][3]
Beyond the Wall
The wildlings do not use coins, which has no value Beyond the Wall and barter for other goods amongst themselves. They also have been known to trade with the night watch rangers and smugglers from the Free Cities and perhaps Westeros as well, trading goods in the little coves on the eastern coast along the Shivering Sea. They take steel weapons and armor in return for furs, ivory, amber, and obsidian.[4]
Essos
The Dothraki, who control much of Essos mainland do not engage in trade. Instead they have a sort of honour system where they accept gifts and then give gifts in return, but they do so in their own time.
Essos major port cities are trade hubs connecting the east and west, with traders introducing various coinage. Known coins in use:
- Honors, are gold coins which where used in Qarth and Volantis. They are no bigger then a seven kingdoms penny, bearing a crown on one face and death's head on the other.[5][6] Gold Honors are used in Meereen.[7]
- In Lys, coins are oval in shape and have a naked woman stamped on them.[8].
- In Braavos there are square iron coins[9].
Additionally it can be said that Slaves are used as a form of currency in the Slaver's Bay and other cities.
See also:
Orders of magnitude
- At the time of The Hedge Knight (209 AC) it was not unusual for a plain yet complete set of good steel armor with greaves, gorget and greathelm to cost 800 stags, roughly four dragons.
- At the beginning of the novels, the Iron throne is more than six million dragons in debt,[10] which represents a colossal sums.
- The Hands tournament reward was 40,000 dragons to the winner of the joust, 20,000 dragons to the second, 20,000 dragons to the winner of the melee, and 10,000 dragons to the winner of the archery competition.[10]
- A Lysene pirate prince with two dozen ships under his command might command 23,000 gold dragons a month for his service as a sellsail[11]
- Six coppers for a melon, a silver stag for a bushel of corn, and a gold dragon for a side of beef or six skinny piglets are all shockingly high prices.[12]
References and Notes
- ↑ The Hedge Knight; page 477 of the original US Hardcover edition of Legends
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 7, Cersei II.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 16, Jaime II.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 54, Davos V.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 63, Daenerys V.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Tyrion I
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 2, Daenerys I.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, The Blind Girl
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, The Blind Girl
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 20, Eddard IV.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 10, Davos I.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 32, Tyrion IV.
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