Gold Tabs

Tabs are flat, rectangular, tokens made of precious metals such as gold or silver with a hole in one corner and a design on one side, with the date a coin was produced on the other side. Designed to be tied together with a string to make organizing them easier, tabs were developed as a currency by a Gnome who lived among Dwarven miners millennia ago. Though this Gnome's name has long been lost to history, his legacy has survived, with the currency he developed becoming the most common in the world.

Significance

The existence of tabs gives certain lowborn people as much influence as nobles--they need only make enough money. Thanks to the power of Tabs, in many places, rich Lowborn citizens can leverage noble titles and lands from others, if they so desire. Many noblemen do what they can to prevent such entrepreneurs, but they are not always successful in this endeavor.

Item type

Currency & Deeds

Rarity

Tabs are not rare by any sense of the word, minted in two out of three of the Central Kingdoms, and accepted as sufficient payment by virtually anybody. While gold tabs themselves are usually only used by the middle class and beyond, silver and copper tabs are used daily by lower income residents.

Dimensions

1.5 inches / 3.8 cm average

Base Price

1 GT (gold tab) = 1 GC (gold coin)

Raw materials & Components

Tabs are made of a variety of precious or semiprecious metals. Namely, tabs are made of copper, silver, gold, and occasionally platinum.

Tools

For a government to make an official tab, it requires a special "minting seal", a special print issued only to Kings that is pressed on the liquid metal as it cools in order to change the shape of the coin. Minting seals are well usually well guarded, trusted only to the protection of those most loyal to the king. In the event a minting seal is stolen, the ruling Monarch will declare all coins of that seal produced after the date the seal went missing to be non-official. Soon after, a new minting seal is created, and coin minting is resumed.