Elethian Minting

While Elethian mages struggle to create large sums of metal in permanent quantities, given the materials, certain types of mages can create coinage from an exemplar that is functionally indistinguishable from a properly minted coin. Due to the inherent dangers of unreliable currency and inability to stop counterfeiting, states have agreed upon Elethian-based countermeasures to ensure the legitimate nature of their coinage. Unfortunately, such countermeasures are costly and difficult to procure, leading to a spare number of unified currencies led by regional powers. 
Coinage has two primary enchantments placed on each coin. The first is a simple enchantment that causes the coinage to glow slightly when exposed to significant heat, such as being held to a candle flame, that allows transactions to be quickly verified. The second enchantment typically destroys the material of the coin if it is magically tampered with, typically turning the coin into puddles of water; states frown upon Elethian water mages using these coins as sources of emergency power. In most cases, these magical security measures mixed with physical measures make counterfeiting coinage difficult and time-consuming. 
While the first enchantment is not onerous to replicate on single coins, the specific ability is rare, and emulation on any meaningful scale is arduous. Mixed with the fundamental difficulties of using Elethian Magic to transmute precious metals, almost all effective counterfeiting is an exercise on a strategic scale rather than singular mages defrauding hapless merchants.