Gold Currency

The Gold Currency is the standard currency established in the Azerath Nations and Authorania as well as many other nations.

The Azerath Nations
During the Tribal Era, the tribes that inhabited the Azerath region relied solely on barter. However, as more tribes began to inhabit the region and trade became more common, most tribes began to develop the use of commodity money. This usually took the form of wheat and livestock but anything could be used to trade.

When the God-Kings established their kingdoms, each kingdom began to use different currencies for example Vulharenjiard used lapis lazuli as their currency while Vascova used emeralds. This became a problem for trade as traders had to keep track of the currency they were going to need in the kingdom they were going to and they also had to find ways to make currency from one kingdom be worth anything in their home kingdom.

However, each kingdom still used their own currencies until the Dynasty Treaty was drafted and the kingdoms had to form a common currency. Not only would this make things easier for trade but one of the perks to being a member nation of the Azerath Nations was financial support from the other member nations. So each king from every nation drafted up what they believed should be the new common currency. Many ideas were put forward like lapis lazuli, emeralds, diamonds and sponges, however, every nation eventually agreed to use gold as the common currency. It was rare but not too rare, stable and it was easy to carry around.

When the Dynasty Treaty went into effect, the Gold Currency was established.

Authorania
The earliest known use of gold as currency was in Morthania, where gold nuggets were used for valuable trade. The use of gold nuggets carried into Authorania after its founding, however Authorania did not have a standard currency for many years.

For much of Authorania's early history, citizens and traders often used slabs of wood with carvings on them as currency. Although these slabs of wood were popular, they were not officially recognized by the government so they weren't official currency. Due to this currency not being official, the amount of what a slab of wood would be worth often varied as it relied on the bank that supplied the slab. This caused many problems, for example, a bank in Danes would supply slabs of wood tied to the worth of a pound of wheat while a bank in Capital City would supply slabs of wood tied to the worth of one iron bar. If the value of wheat suddenly crashed, putting the bank in Danes out of business, the slabs of wood from the Danes bank would be rendered useless. Also, if you had a slab that came from the bank in Danes and you tried to exchange it at the bank in Capital City, that bank would not accept the slab for it is tied to a currency they don't have investment in. This problem gained the attention of the government when Authorania was plunged into the Dark Era and most banks were put out of business due to the value of so many things going down. To fix this, the Authoranian government decided to make the slabs official by tying them to the government's iron reserves and establishing government run banks.

Authorania continued using wooden slabs as currency until the conclusion of the Blood River War when the relationship between the Azerath Nations and Authorania was strongest. During this time, trade began to be common between the two superpowers and Authorania began to run into the issue the Azerath Nations faced before the Dynasty Treaty was established. Since Authorania's wooden slabs were tied to iron, those slabs were worth substantially less in the Azerath Nations were iron was much less valuable. This caused such a problem that the Authoranian government decided to review their currency. The Azerath Nations suggested they use the Gold Currency they established for it has been stable and it's more convenient. The Authoranian king agreed and soon after they changed their currency to the Gold Currency.

Usage
The Gold Currency is used as the standard currency in both the Azerath Nations and Authorania. Due to the two superpowers use of the Gold Currency, many independent nations also use the Gold Currency as their standard currency. The Gold Currency is broken up into four groups: Gold Nuggests (GN), Gold Bars (GB), Gold Blocks (GBl) and Diamond Blocks (DB). The currency breaks down as follows:

9 Gold Nuggets (GN) = 1 Gold Bar (GB)

9 Gold Bars (GB) = 1 Gold Block (GBl)

50 Gold Blocks (GBl) = 1 Diamond Block (DB)