| This article is about the coins produced as Kingkiller Chronicle merchandise. |
| You may be looking for the in-universe currency of Ceald. |
Cealdish Currency is a set of coins produced by Shire Post Mint in 2014. The set is based on an early version of the currency of Ceald used within Temerant.
Description
Author Patrick Rothfuss and Shire Post Mint collaborated to create this set of currency. They were developed in a way to showcase the evolution of the Cealdish currency over centuries. The versions produced were meant to resemble the coins several hundred years before the start of Kvothe's story in The Kingkiller Chronicle.[1]
The following quote was included in the inserts for the coins when purchased.
- "Ages ago, barter was the most common method of trade. Some larger cities coined their own currency, but outside those cities the money was only worth the weight of the metal. Bars of metal were better for bartering, but inconvenient to carry.... The Cealdim were the first to establish a standardized currency that was widely accepted. By cutting a bar of metal into pieces, you would get copper jots. It was a great improvement on the previous system, and is still the most widely accepted currency in The Four Corners today."
- ―Tillen Andra: The Road of Iron & Gold
All of the coins are trapezoidal in shape so that when stacked, they would resemble an ingot of metal. All of the coins also include a stamp depicting a mountain over a lake. The coins created were:
Copper Jot
The copper jot was the first coin produced, and only 1000 were made. They were first available in the Name of the Wind Playing Cards Kickstarter, as well as later in Rothfuss' online store, The Tinker's Packs. The jot is made from solid copper.[2]
Iron Drab
The iron drab is made of blackened and brutalized iron, and finished with a black oxide and pastewax. There were 1500 made in total. The drab technically has two versions: 1.1 and 1.2. Version 1.2 had less wax, and a larger and more detailed maker's mark than the other coins. Only 160 were made of version 1.2.[2]
Silver Talent
The silver talents were made of an alloy called billon, which is composed of 20% silver and 80% copper. Normally, this would make it a rosy color, but they were heated and then hammered in a process called blanching to appear silver. There were 1000 made of these, in a combination of blanched and unblanched versions.[2]
Gold Mark
The gold marks were made of shakudo, a traditional Japanese alloy of 5% gold, 1% silver, and 94% copper. Because of this, they have a very particular finish to them, becoming a deep purple-copper color. There were only 95 made due to their high cost.[2]
Sets
The coins were offered in a few different sets:[2]
The Master Set was the only way for buyers to guarantee they would get a version 1.2 drab. For all of the rest of the sets, the version 1.2 drabs were mixed in and assigned randomly.
Background and production
During Worldbuilders 2013, Rothfuss showed some of the donated work of fantasy coin maker Tom Maringer of Shire Post Mint in a blog post and revealed that they are collaborating to create some of the currency from his world.[3] A week later, he posted photos of the prototype sets of the Cealdish currency that donators could win.[1] In June 2014, Rothfuss announced that the first versions of the Cealdish coins were up in the Tinker's Packs store for fans to buy.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Patrick Rothfuss Blog. Three Threes or Who Wants to Be A Beta Reader? (January 30, 2014)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Patrick Rothfuss Blog. Novelties: Signed books and Cealdish Coins (June 17, 2014)
- ↑ Patrick Rothfuss Blog. Coinage from Game of Thrones and Wheel of Time (January 23, 2014)
| Works in the The Kingkiller Chronicle series | |
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