Return to Answer

Some historical examples to work from:

Ancient Cypriot copper ingots were cast in the form of a stylized oxhide. This indicated throughout the Mycenaean world that the expected value of a copper ingot was one ox. Since barter was the most common trade arrangement of that time, this "proto money" created a sort of common value system, and allowed Cypriot traders to establish a benchmark of sorts when trading. One copper ingot = one ox, so how many oxen would translate into a quantity of wine or oil or other commodities the trader was interested in.

Perhaps more importantly, since you are establishing a fantasy world where multiple nations exist and trade across the borders, you will need to establish what is known as Purchasing Power Parity, or PPP.

The Economist magazine has an interesting example of how to do this, called the Big Mac Index. Here it is from the Economist. It looks at nations around the world, and asks "how many hours of labour would it take to purchase a Big Mac meal in these countries?" Obviously a lower number of working hours to purchase a Big Mac meal makes the currency's "purchasing power" much stronger than a place where it takes a lot of hours of labour. The Economist's Big Mac Index is actually very sophisticated, since it also measures the general economy of the nation (A Big Mac meal requires a lot of ingredients from many read of the economy. A nation where it takes a lot of labour to purchase a Big Mac probably also suffers shortages of many key ingredients).

For your purposes, unless there is a Ye Old MacDonald's chain across the realms, a PPP index should be established in the back of your head for common items like a cow, wheat, beer and so on. The National economy may value their currency in some arbitrary manner, but (as we see in many nations where the economy is weak or failing) the true value of the currency may be radically different. As someone in Venezuela today how many Bolivars are needed to exchange for a single Dollar USD compared to 2000AD and you get the idea.

So you can have the Magic Kingdom value one "Mickey" to ten "Minnies" or one hundred "Plutos", but the ordinary person is asking "How many Plutos do I need for a beer?" and a trader is asking "In this kingdom, how many of my Zognars would it take to purchase a beer?"

Some historical examples to work from:

Ancient Cypriot copper ingots were cast in the form of a stylized oxhide. This indicated throughout the Mycenaean world that the expected value of a copper ingot was one ox. Since barter was the most common trade arrangement of that time, this "proto money" created a sort of common value system, and allowed Cypriot traders to establish a benchmark of sorts when trading. One copper ingot = one ox, so how many oxen would translate into a quantity of wine or oil or other commodities the trader was interested in.

Perhaps more importantly, since you are establishing a fantasy world where multiple nations exist and trade across the borders, you will need to establish what is known as Purchasing Power Parity, or PPP.

The Economist magazine has an interesting example of how to do this, called the Big Mac Index. Here it is from the Economist. It looks at nations around the world, and asks "how many hours of labour would it take to purchase a Big Mac meal in these countries?" Obviously a lower number of working hours to purchase a Big Mac meal makes the currency's "purchasing power" much stronger than a place where it takes a lot of hours of labour. The Economist's Big Mac Index is actually very sophisticated, since it also measures the general economy of the nation (A Big Mac meal requires a lot of ingredients from many areas of the economy. A nation where it takes a lot of labour to purchase a Big Mac probably also suffers shortages of many key ingredients).

For your purposes, unless there is a Ye Old MacDonald's chain across the realms, a PPP index should be established in the back of your head for common items like a cow, wheat, beer and so on. The National economy may value their currency in some arbitrary manner, but (as we see in many nations where the economy is weak or failing) the true value of the currency may be radically different. As someone in Venezuela today how many Bolivars are needed to exchange for a single Dollar USD compared to 2000AD and you get the idea.

So you can have the Magic Kingdom value one "Mickey" to ten "Minnies" or one hundred "Plutos", but the ordinary person is asking "How many Plutos do I need for a beer?" and a trader is asking "In this kingdom, how many of my Zognars would it take to purchase a beer?"

Some historical examples to work from:

Ancient Cypriot copper ingots were cast in the form of a stylized oxhide. This indicated throughout the Mycenaean world that the expected value of a copper ingot was one ox. Since barter was the most common trade arrangement of that time, this "proto money" created a sort of common value system, and allowed Cypriot traders to establish a benchmark of sorts when trading. One copper ingot = one ox, so how many oxen would translate into a quantity of wine or oil or other commodities the trader was interested in.

Perhaps more importantly, since you are establishing a fantasy world where multiple nations exist and trade across the borders, you will need to establish what is known as Purchasing Power Parity, or PPP.

The Economist magazine has an interesting example of how to do this, called the Big Mac Index. It looks at nations around the world, and asks "how many hours of labour would it take to purchase a Big Mac meal in these countries?" Obviously a lower number of working hours to purchase a Big Mac meal makes the currency's "purchasing power" much stronger than a place where it takes a lot of hours of labour. The Economist's Big Mac Index is actually very sophisticated, since it also measures the general economy of the nation (A Big Mac meal requires a lot of ingredients from many read of the economy. A nation where it takes a lot of labour to purchase a Big Mac probably also suffers shortages of many key ingredients).

For your purposes, unless there is a Ye Old MacDonald's chain across the realms, a PPP index should be established in the back of your head for common items like a cow, wheat, beer and so on. The National economy may value their currency in some arbitrary manner, but (as we see in many nations where the economy is weak or failing) the true value of the currency may be radically different. As someone in Venezuela today how many Bolivars are needed to exchange for a single Dollar USD compared to 2000AD and you get the idea.

So you can have the Magic Kingdom value one "Mickey" to ten "Minnies" or one hundred "Plutos", but the ordinary person is asking "How many Plutos do I need for a beer?" and a trader is asking "In this kingdom, how many of my Zognars would it take to purchase a beer?"

Some historical examples to work from:

Ancient Cypriot copper ingots were cast in the form of a stylized oxhide. This indicated throughout the Mycenaean world that the expected value of a copper ingot was one ox. Since barter was the most common trade arrangement of that time, this "proto money" created a sort of common value system, and allowed Cypriot traders to establish a benchmark of sorts when trading. One copper ingot = one ox, so how many oxen would translate into a quantity of wine or oil or other commodities the trader was interested in.

Perhaps more importantly, since you are establishing a fantasy world where multiple nations exist and trade across the borders, you will need to establish what is known as Purchasing Power Parity, or PPP.

The Economist magazine has an interesting example of how to do this, called the Big Mac Index. Here it is from the Economist. It looks at nations around the world, and asks "how many hours of labour would it take to purchase a Big Mac meal in these countries?" Obviously a lower number of working hours to purchase a Big Mac meal makes the currency's "purchasing power" much stronger than a place where it takes a lot of hours of labour. The Economist's Big Mac Index is actually very sophisticated, since it also measures the general economy of the nation (A Big Mac meal requires a lot of ingredients from many read of the economy. A nation where it takes a lot of labour to purchase a Big Mac probably also suffers shortages of many key ingredients).

For your purposes, unless there is a Ye Old MacDonald's chain across the realms, a PPP index should be established in the back of your head for common items like a cow, wheat, beer and so on. The National economy may value their currency in some arbitrary manner, but (as we see in many nations where the economy is weak or failing) the true value of the currency may be radically different. As someone in Venezuela today how many Bolivars are needed to exchange for a single Dollar USD compared to 2000AD and you get the idea.

So you can have the Magic Kingdom value one "Mickey" to ten "Minnies" or one hundred "Plutos", but the ordinary person is asking "How many Plutos do I need for a beer?" and a trader is asking "In this kingdom, how many of my Zognars would it take to purchase a beer?"

Some historical examples to work from:

Ancient Cypriot copper ingots were cast in the form of a stylized oxhide. This indicated throughout the Mycenaean world that the expected value of a copper ingot was one ox. Since barter was the most common trade arrangement of that time, this "proto money" created a sort of common value system, and allowed Cypriot traders to establish a benchmark of sorts when trading. One copper ingot = one ox, so how many oxen would translate into a quantity of wine or oil or other commodities the trader was interested in.

Perhaps more importantly, since you are establishing a fantasy world where multiple nations exist and trade across the borders, you will need to establish what is known as Purchasing Power Parity, or PPP.

The Economist magazine has an interesting example of how to do this, called the Big Mac index. It looks at nations around the world, and asks "how many hours of labour would it take to purchase a Big Mac meal in these countries?" Obviously a lower number of working hours to purchase a Big Mac meal makes the currency's "purchasing power" much stronger than a place where it takes a lot of hours of labour. The Economist's Big Mac Index is actually very sophisticated, since it also measures the general economy of the nation (A Big Mac meal requires a lot of ingredients from many read of the economy. A nation where it takes a lot of labour to purchase a Big Mac probably also suffers shortages of many key ingredients).

For your purposes, unless there is a Ye Old MacDonald's chain across the realms, a PPP index should be established in the back of your head for common items like a cow, wheat, beer and so on. The National economy may value their currency in some arbitrary manner, but (as we see in many nations where the economy is weak or failing) the true value of the currency may be radically different. As someone in Venezuela today how many Bolivars are needed to exchange for a single Dollar USD compared to 2000AD and you get the idea.

So you can have the Magic Kingdom value one "Mickey" to ten "Minnies" or one hundred "Plutos", but the ordinary person is asking "How many Plutos do I need for a beer?" and a trader is asking "In this kingdom, how many of my Zognars would it take to purchase a beer?"

Some historical examples to work from:

Ancient Cypriot copper ingots were cast in the form of a stylized oxhide. This indicated throughout the Mycenaean world that the expected value of a copper ingot was one ox. Since barter was the most common trade arrangement of that time, this "proto money" created a sort of common value system, and allowed Cypriot traders to establish a benchmark of sorts when trading. One copper ingot = one ox, so how many oxen would translate into a quantity of wine or oil or other commodities the trader was interested in.

Perhaps more importantly, since you are establishing a fantasy world where multiple nations exist and trade across the borders, you will need to establish what is known as Purchasing Power Parity, or PPP.

The Economist magazine has an interesting example of how to do this, called the Big Mac Index. It looks at nations around the world, and asks "how many hours of labour would it take to purchase a Big Mac meal in these countries?" Obviously a lower number of working hours to purchase a Big Mac meal makes the currency's "purchasing power" much stronger than a place where it takes a lot of hours of labour. The Economist's Big Mac Index is actually very sophisticated, since it also measures the general economy of the nation (A Big Mac meal requires a lot of ingredients from many read of the economy. A nation where it takes a lot of labour to purchase a Big Mac probably also suffers shortages of many key ingredients).

For your purposes, unless there is a Ye Old MacDonald's chain across the realms, a PPP index should be established in the back of your head for common items like a cow, wheat, beer and so on. The National economy may value their currency in some arbitrary manner, but (as we see in many nations where the economy is weak or failing) the true value of the currency may be radically different. As someone in Venezuela today how many Bolivars are needed to exchange for a single Dollar USD compared to 2000AD and you get the idea.

So you can have the Magic Kingdom value one "Mickey" to ten "Minnies" or one hundred "Plutos", but the ordinary person is asking "How many Plutos do I need for a beer?" and a trader is asking "In this kingdom, how many of my Zognars would it take to purchase a beer?"