Northhold Bank, Coinage and the Royal Mint

Ser Jorren looked over his shoulder as the Sprintfall knight emptied the purse into his gloved palm. Eight silver coins fell from the leather bag as Ser Don moved them around to budget for the weeks ahead - Six Silver Stars could buy them both salt meats and hardtack for the week, but forty eight could feed the wandering pair well. The young errant's mind drifted to coins of gold. he'd seen one once, a Golden Sun stamped with the dead King's image, it had been in a woodcutter's hand after she won it from some drunken lordling at dice - they cut that hand off for stealing.

Northhold Bank is the realm's centre of coin and trade, a grand structure built in the earliest days of King Janus the First Cornay that hosts over a hundred clerks and houses the royal mint. The bank's most notable feature is the grand beacon that stands at its head, resting on the furthest most edge of the chalky cliffs that border the Bay of Stars. The Head of the Bank of Northhold finds his chambers and office within the beacon tower, with its vaults set at its base and dug deep into the cliffside. Vertical docks, made of wooden scaffolds to raise shipments from the Bay below, litter the cliffside here as they do in the streets of the capital city - raising great bags of silver, gemstones, grain and other valuables the lords and ladies of the realm seek to store within the Bank's walls.

As ancient as the Northhold Bank is, its public practice of serving the lords and ladies of the realm is a much more recent affair - having begun its life as the store for the personal wealth of the Cornay Family as they sat the Starstone Throne across the Bay. The vaults here were dedicated to the storing of their silver and gold, but also the excess food supplies and valuables that the family kept in reserve. The intention behind this construction was that if the capital was besieged, for weaker its walls and fortifications were in the earliest days of the realm, the royal Cornays could either have supplies transported by boat or by land to bolster their siege defences. Today, however, the Bank is used by all the great houses of Cornay and a heavy handful of its wealthiest minor ones - with the practice of Promissory Notes and the trade of large sums of Gold in exchange for grain, salt and other valuable resources becoming far more common as the population and development of the realm boom.

The practice of trade is defined by the coins that are minted at the Royal Mint in Northhold, broken down into two major denominations. The largest denomination of the realm's wealth is the Golden Sun, a coin made of solid gold and stamped on one side with the Crowned Sun of House Sunjoy and the face of King Gregor the Merrymaker on its reverse. The second denomination of the realm's wealth is the Silver Star, marked with the speared star of the Cornays and the face of King Romidor the Great on its reverse. Golden Suns are valued at one Golden Sun per coin, whilst the Silver Star sits at six - one for each Cornayan God. If change needs to be broken, the Silver Star is often cut into six equal segments - trimmed by merchants and often leading to arguments over size and shaved edges. There are six hundred Silver Stars to a Golden Sun, with the buying power of one Silver Star sitting around a pound of oats. Three Silver Stars are considered "Scarlet's Pay", named for the Knight in Scarlet, and represents the weekly amount of coin reserved for feeding a man-at-arms basic rations like Salt Meats and Hardtack. The income of a common minor lord overseeing a small parcel of land is 8 Golden Suns a year from crops and trade. The average victor's purse of a grand tourney can range from one to five Golden Suns, whilst the average ransom of a noble-born knight sits around 500 Silver Stars for safe return and extra for the return of their arms, armour and horses. Major lords of Cornay sit on wealth unimaginable to much of the world, reaching heights of 300 Golden Suns a year. The stipend of sitting the Council of Swords is an additional 100 Golden Suns a year.

The peasantry are lucky to see a dozen Silver Stars a year, with their labour being unpaid in return for lodgings on their liege lord or lady's lands and permission to hunt small game or eat small allowances of the crops grown in their farms. Peasants who have valuable skills, such as blacksmiths, tailors, or camp followers, will be outliers to this rule - though their wealth will never compare to the merchants and nobility of the realm. Worse still are the commonfolk of the capital, the orphans of Cliff-end or beggars of the Narrowalleys, who will be lucky to see a full silver coin in their lives. During wartime, there are considerable inflations to consider. The price of grain may spike as the farmerfolk of Oakenshire are repurposed into billblocks and men-at-arms, the sale of steel may be limited for all purposes other than army construction, and horses and carts may be taken entirely from the peasantry for the purpose of transporting supplies and siege weapons. During peacetime in 1313 PB, certain prices were standard and can be used as a reference for how much a single Silver Star or a Single Golden Sun should cost.

• A Pound of Oats - 1 Silver Star

• One Night's Poor Lodgings - 1 Silver Star

• Rations for One Week - 3 Silver Stars

• A Firkin of Ale - 4 Silver Stars

• Tack for Horses - 6 Silver Stars

• Warm Food for One Week - 7 Silver Stars

• A Firkin of Oldreach Red Wine - 12 Silver Stars

• A Dagger, Club, or Spear - 20 Silver Stars

• A Mace, Lance, Battle Axe or Bow - 30 Silver Stars

• Travelling Garments - 30 Silver Stars

• Agaarian Spices, Perfumes or Imported Wines - 50 Silver Stars

• A Cheap Sword and Scabbard - 60 Silver Stars

• A Minor Noble's Daily Garments - 100 Silver Stars

• A Mail Haubergeon or An Arming Sword - 150 Silver Stars

• A Work Horse or Small Riding Horse - 180 Silver Stars

• A Rouncy or other Riding Horses - 240 Silver Stars

• Chain Hauberk - 390 Silver Stars

• A Jennet or Course or other Racing Horse - 480 Silver Stars

• A Major Noble's Daily Garments - 480 Silver Stars

• Nobleborn Knight Errant's Plate Breastplate and Gauntlets - 1 Golden Sun

• Nobleborn Knight Plate Armour - 5 Golden Suns

• Nobleborn Lordly Plate Armour - 9 Golden Suns

• Nobleborn Tourney Plate Armour - 15 Golden Suns

• Royal Knight Plate Armour - 15 Golden Suns

• Royal Tourney Plate Armour - 20+ Golden Suns