Designing coins

Mia noticed Chris' gaze and misunderstood. She thought he wanted his pillow back.

Which was also true, but right now he would really be happy to just jump on her bed and roll around on her pillow...

"You gave me this pillow! No take back!" Said Mia clearly.

[Hm? When did it change from 'loaning' to 'giving'? And when did she start acting shamelessly?] Thought a surprised Chris.

But he didn't have time to share his thoughts: "I am very busy. You should be too. Please go." Said Mia in her usual calm and cold voice as she pushed him out.

Chris was speechlessly standing in front of Mia's tent when he heard some laugh. "Huhu. Looks like she learned a bit from a certain someone." Said Cat.

"Don't you have some Gnolls to take care of?" Chris barked at Catherine.

But she was already gone, and all that was left was her echoing laugh.

"Geez. I can't get a scrap of respect. Could it be that I am not dignified enough? Hm?"

*huff*

Chris bent down to pick a copper coin and put it in his pocket in a flash. It was probably dropped by the guards as they carried the chest from the necromancer's cave to the storage. He did so in the most natural fashion in the world, as if he had just dropped that coin.

"No way, that can't be it. I'm pretty sure I'm cool. And fresh!" This was when Chris noticed the coin in his pocket."Hm? Where did I get this? Those old coins are worth a fart right now."

He was about to throw it away when he remembered that the Sun Kingdom didn't have its own monetary system.

[Right now everyone works in exchange for the basic necessities. But this is temporary, soon we'll pay salaries, and people will be able to monetize their own skills. But this can't happen without our own coins.]

Chris flipped the coin in his hand and checked it out carefully as he entered his own tent. [This one is pretty basic. A copper coin huh? The drawings on both sides are barely visible.]

[This won't do. When you think of making your own money, the most important thing is... To make it cool!]

He sat down at his table and started working on the new design.

[Let's go with three sets of three coins, a trinity of trinities. That's probably the coolest set possible!]

[The first set of three coins will be made of copper, the second of silver and the last of gold.]

[I need a cool name. Sun coins? Nah. I need something that will make people think. Right! Let's go with 'Macsiat' or 'MCT' for short. That will make people think.] He thought as he laughed while imagining people trying to guess what the weird name stands for.

[A modern system should work better. Converting the transaction amount to silver and copper is a pain. So each coin will have a MCT value stamped on it. The copper coins will be worth 1, 5 and 10 MCT. The silver coins 20, 50 and 100 MCT and the gold coins 200, 500 and 1000 MCT.]

Chris worked on their design next. There were three steps. The shape of the coins, it's physical design and the drawings on each of its faces.

The drawings could be made last, but to start working on prototypes he needed to decide the shape and physical details of the coins.

He decided to go with round coins with an outer ring in a different material. There is a reason most modern coins are in this shape. Sharp angles on a coin will be ground down with time while round coins will last longer and the outer rings will make it harder to counterfeit. This is especially true in this era where this design has never been done before.

The outer ring for copper would be silver, the thicker it was the more valuable the coin would be in MCT, thus going from 1 to 5 and 10MCT, the silver coins would have a golden outer ring and the golden coins' rings... Well, those would have to be decided a little later.

Chris made sure he was satisfied with his design and picked up the coin's blueprint as well as another one from his secret stash. It was not time to visit Carmelo.

The place was even noisier than usual. Aiden's mason and Rinat Carpenter's were busy building another extension to the blacksmith's shop.

Chris was checking out the progress when Carmelo noticed him.

"Good day My Lord!" Shouted Carmelo. "I apologize for the mess."As you can see there are a lot of new heads. Recruitment for the new apprentices went very smoothly." He continued. "Rinat is currently building an extension for our workshop, it should be ready in a few days. Things should calm down then."

"Good. Good. I am glad things are picking up. Train them well. We will need their skills very soon!" Said Chris with a smile. With the new recruits the blacksmith workshop should be able to output enough tools for the foreseeable future. This was very good news for Brine City and all it's workshops.

"Haha! Have no fear my lord! I will not disappoint." Carmelo was as energetic as always.

"Let's talk work." Said Chris. "Here this is something easy that shouldn't require much materials. This might even make for some good training job for the apprentices."

Chris handed the scroll he picked up from his secret stash.

Carmelo checked out the blueprint. It really was a very design even for this world's standards. It was basically two small rods curved and fused together.

"An iron star?" Thought out loud Carmelo.

"Their real name is Caltrop. It doesn't matter if they are done perfectly so the apprentices should be able to experiment while crafting them." Explained Chris. "We'll use them as small traps spread on the ground, with the appropriate poisons they will be a great annoyance to the Kunalls."

This really wasn't much in itself. It wouldn't bring down the Kunalls by itself and Chris thought this world most likely had something like this already.

But most of the fights against Kunalls, in the foreseeable future, were ambushes. And Chris was worried that some particularly tenacious Kunalls would be able to climb the hills in the ambush site and reach his soldiers. Those tiny caltrops should make things considerably harder for the Kunalls without costing much in resources.

Carmelo answer in his usual jovial mood. "Haha no problem! This is actually perfect, I had nothing for those chicks to do."

Chris pulled out a second scroll from his robe, it was the blueprints for the new coins.

He leaned in and said in a hushed voice. "is there somewhere more private where we can talk?"

Carmelo was surprised but guided him to his own office in the workshop. With the storage room it was the only place that had a door and a lock.

"Why the secrecy my Lord?" Asked Carmelo. "Could it be... You want me to build a bordello and keep it a secret from miss Mia? You shouldn't my Lord, she'll definitively find out and she'll be mad at you."

Chris' butt almost missed the chair as he stumbled at Carmelo's word. "Why is your mind going there first?" He complained, but somehow he couldn't really blame Carmelo. "Please check those blueprints. Can you mint these?"

Carmelo eyes suddenly got very bright. "Oh my. This is indeed a big deal."

He examined the blueprints for a while. "Yes, this is very doable, the outer ring design complicates things a bit, but it's nothing I can't do. Do you have the drawings to stamp on the blanks?"

"Not yet but they should be ready soon." Chris had a tiny rascally smile as he said this. "I'm sure I don't need to warn you to keep the plans, blanks and any machine you make to mint the coins a secret and out of people's view. If any of those got out, it would be very bad news for us."

"Worry not my Lord. I and I alone, will work on this until we are ready to mass produce them."

Chris thought for a little bit and added. "Let's have Aiden's workers make you a secured building."

"Thank you, my Lord. This will help me greatly." Carmelo turned back his attention to the scrolls. "Macsiat? That's the name of the currency isn't it? What does it mean?"

Chris smiled but didn't answer.

*********** ************

This was actually one of the great mysteries of the human kingdom for next 3 centuries. Everyone used the human currency every day, but no one could explain it's name. Many people assumed that it was something from their King's previous world, others just thought it was a random set of letters. But one thing was for sure. No one understood the first Sun King's mind.

It all changed roughly 350 years later when the Sun King's journal was found behind a trap door leading to his hidden study in the capital's castle. It was surprisingly well preserved.

The answer was so shocking that historians wondered if the original Sun King was trolling them.

"Chris' Log - 2 week 5th day .

Today I worked hard. I prepared a little surprise for the Kunalls and designed my own coins!

I had a little fun with it, and I am still working on some more surprises.

I mean, what's the point of being King if I can't have a little fun and mess with people? Huhu.

I think I am making a little progress with Mia too. She did kick me from her tent today, however. But I think she is warming up to me.

I also received some good info lately on how to gain some Mia points...

... ...

5 pages later.

... ...

And that's my plan to make her fall for me.

Anyways, the currency is going to be named MACSIAT. And the song of the day is :

Mia And Chris Sitting In A Tree.

K-i-s-s-i-n-g!

First comes love.

Then comes marriage.

Then comes baby* in the baby carriage,

Sucking his thumb,

Wetting his pants,

Doing the hula, hula dance!

*********** ************

Chris left Carmelo's workshop and went to the temporary treasure room.

He met with Berg on the way who was also interested in their current riches. Chris was particularly interested to see the quantity of silver and gold they had available once those coins where melted. After all they had found iron and copper lodes but no silver or gold yet.

The treasury room was the only room made out of rocks and mortar. All mortar production was currently dedicated to the eastern defense wall, the treasury room, and soon the minting room were exceptions.

Berg had arranged guards that patrolled in shifts. Of course, they did not block Chris and Berg.

An incredible spectacle awaited them inside. Mia had given the order to empty the chests on the ground and piles of copper, silver and gold coins were spread on the ground. The chests were nowhere to be seen. Mia probably had a use for them.

"Finally... This is my Scrooge McDuck moment..." Whispered Chris.