Money
Across Creation there are four types of widely accepted money, and a myriad of local currencies and near currencies.
Jade
This Realm issued currency is inherently valuable and accepted everywhere rejecting it is not a political decision (and still used then), mostly by the wealthy as even the smallest coin is significant. Carved from white jade in official Realm Mints it is fiendishly difficult to counterfeit or adulterate, though under some circumstances "blank" talents of jade (of any colour) will be accepted as long as the weight and size are correct (tribute is often paid this way).
A jade talent weighs 68 pounds and is rarely seen, mostly being used as a unit of account. A talent is worth 1,024 obols but by weight would contain 50% more or 1,536, the rest is lost (actually carefully captured and used, just not for money) in inevitable wastage carving discs from rectangular blocks. This inevitably creates friction in trade and transferring physical money in and out of accounts.
A talent is worth 8 bars, 64 minae (slightly more than a pound in weight) or 128 shekels, all of which are smaller rectangular bars that can be carved with no loss
The Obol is the most common physically used jade coin, a disc about one inch across and 3/8s of that thick, weighing exactly an ounce by definition. One side is graven with the Imperial Treasury seal and the other has an image that has changed over time.
There are 128 obols to the bar, 16 to the mina and 8 to the shekel.
The Bit doesn't officially exist and would be illegal if it did (due to being recognition signals in the Unbroken Rushes Rebellion), but is so useful they are used anyway, each is a quater of an Obol that has been cut up. As jade is a magical material, it is not uncommon for a bit to be used by wealthier peasants in the Realm as an amulet by burnishing off the markings, drilling a hole for a lanyard and carving a chracter (such as "wealth", "protection", or "love") into it.
Jade Scrip
This secondary Realm currency is not used worldwide, in fact any that leaves the Blessed Isle can no longer be legally redeemed, though it is so useful that some tributaries use it anyway.
Scrip has no inherent value and is backed by the Empresses personal estates
- koku, a mulberry paper rectangle shot through with gold and purple silk forming a pattern of flying cranes, printed with a black and green image of eagles nesting on the Imperial Mountain on one side and the value (1/8th of an obol) on the other
- quian, also paper but with a pattern of lions and printed with an image of the Imperial City skyline on the front and the value (1/64th of an obol) on the back
- Siu, a copper coin roughly the size of an obol but worth 1/128th as much which has been treated to stay brown
- Yen, a green copper coin twice the size of the Siu but with a hole in the middle and worth only 1/8th as much (1,024 to the obol)
The Silver Standard
Several decades ago the Guild began promoting silver as a medium of exchange and minted their dinar. Somewhere between an inherently valuable and a fiat currency as silver is not that useful, but whatever its fluctuations the Guild redeems it at the face value. Its lack of magical value makes many people suspicious and it is unlawful to use it in some Realm satrapies. In just as many places however it is considered a safe alternatve to jade, and can always be used with Guild merchants so while acceptance is spotty it is widespread.
The only physical coin is the dinar, a slightly oval coin weighing 25 to the pound, made from 97% pure silver and with milled edges. They are often cut into halves and quarters and sometimes to an eighth. The dirham is worth 400 dinars but only exists as a unit of account (ingots of silver often weight the same 16lbs but are not minted coins with a guaranteed value), a talent of silver is also a unit of account. Silver coinage is worth roughly 20% of the same weight in jade, but it is very difficult to exchange between them and most merchants deal exclusively in one.
Many other governments also mint their own dinars with their own designs using equipment purchased from the Guild, these coins are physically the same size as the dinar but are typically worth less as the metal is less pure.
In the North and extreme South belts with 16 one-pound silver plates and pound and a half bracelets are starting to be made and used as a medium of exchange along with the older tradition of hacksilver (that is valued by weight and cut at the point of purchase).
Cowries
In the islands of the Western Ocean the rare red cowrie shell is used as a medum of exchange, singly and in strings of 25, 50 or 100. While cowries are effectively worthless everywhere else in the islands they can be exchanged for silver or jade, the rates being much more favourable for silver than the rest of Creation.