Caubochon

Caubochons are coins often used by the jewelers, archmages, and art dealers of Cape Hildegard. They vary in size and materials—anything from bronze to mithril to platinum is used, though silver and gold are the most common—but are united by the gems embedded in their centers.
The caubochon arose in the early days of Cape Hildegard's history, when it began as a trading port frequented by disparate cultures. Gems were common trading materials, particularly among the wizards and alchemists that used them for material components, but different groups disagreed on their values. The Orekeepers' Council was formed with delegates from each group, in an attempt to standardize the monetary value of these gems. After much internal controversy that nearly resulted in the breakdown of the burgeoning city's economy, the Council introduced the caubochon, a coin combining gemstones and metal into a standardized and agreed-upon value.
The process of minting a caubochon involves first appraising each gemstone that comes into the Council's possession. (Raw, polished, or cut gemstones are still sometimes used as currency in Cape Hildegard, though mostly in informal deals; adventurers, miners, and wizards are heavily encouraged to sell their gems directly to the Orekeepers' Council.) Any raw gemstones are polished to a high shine. Then, all gemstones are assigned a precise value in accordance with the stringent guidelines established by the Orekeepers. The gem is then placed in the center of a caubochon mold embossed with its value, and an appropriate amount of a metal is poured into the mold over it to produce a coin of the stated value. Standard value approximates of typically-produced caubochons in the Kingdom Crown system are 10gp, 50gp, 100gp, 500gp, and 1000gp.
The caubochon system prevents nearly all nonmagical counterfeiting by tying the coin's value specifically to the weight, purity, and condition of the metal and gemstone that comprise it. Caubochons always use materials of a purity that can be recycled into jewelry, alchemical components, or materia magica. Though the coins themselves are largely not considered legal tender outside Cypruvalu (with a few exceptions in wealthy locales like Urbana al-Sona and Archvale), they retain roughly the same value across Belcantas because of the well-known quality of their materials.
Some older records indicate that a Deep Ruby caubochon was sometimes minted in the late Age of Integrity. Even in its era, these would have been 10,000-crown caubochons; accounting for inflation, they would be worth nearly ten times as much in the modern era. However, no known deep ruby caubochons exist today, as the deep ruby shortage of the 800s CPX saw all of them reclaimed for use in magic items.

Item type

Currency & Deeds