U.S. coins as currency

[Nemo]

Here is a random idea.

Assume electronic credits are wiped out. What would people use as money?

Without a government and banks to exchange old bills for new, I do not think paper money would last very long. Its very perishability would make it useless as currency.

But coins last a long time, so they could conceivably serve as currency for many decades. But they might have very different value from what they do today, depending on their rarity... A penny post-apocalypse might buy a dollar's worth of today's goods, say. So shops would tend to quote prices in cents rather than dollars. (Welcome to 1900.)

More interestingly, if the coins value depended on their scarcity, then their relative value would have little relationship to their face value:

http://visualeconomics.creditloan.com/t ... rculation/

If valued by scarcity, nickels would be 70% more valuable than dimes, dimes would be two and a half times as valuable as quarters, and quarters would be 40 times as valuable as pennies.

The very rare 50 cent piece would be 25 times as valuable as a nickel.

This might be more annoying than fun. But I would still get a kick out of it.

[Sxerks]

From the WL1 manual:
"The following is an excerpt from The History of the Desert Rangers, The Early Years, by Karl Allard, 2087, Allard Press, Ranger Center Hardbound pp. 293, $20 gold. "

So, apparently things were sold via a gold standard in dollars.

[Madae]

Yup, coins makes sense to me. Paper money never really did, but it made some sense in Fallout with the NCR. They were rebuilding civilization, and probably capable of reprinting currency.

[TheEmissary]

What ever they use just have it make more sense than using bottle caps.

[Seytan]

What ever they use just have it make more sense than using bottle caps.

This!

[Archangel]

What ever they use just have it make more sense than using bottle caps.

Bottle caps actually make a lot of sense when you think about it. I have some one me right now actually!

See, they are relatively easy to stack, which makes for easy sorting. They are about the size of a quarter, which is good for not losing them as well as handling. Plus, it's pretty difficult to counterfeit a bottle cap with its unique shape and side ridges plus that torn effect you get when you pry them off a bottle.

They have value because (If the Fallout wiki is to be believed) at one point the NCR backed them up using sliver standard.

I'm hoping Wasteland picks something similar, be it coins, or something else. Really, anything can become a currency in real-life as well, at one point in time, some Indians used a certain type of shell as money.

EDIT: Plus for currency, you want some common, but not too common. Bottle caps fit that bill perfectly.

[alexlaird87]

EDIT: Plus for currency, you want some common, but not too common. Bottle caps fit that bill perfectly.

How about empty shell casings; at least they are intrinsically valuable...

Also, the inflation on bottle caps would mean that they would be constantly becoming more and more worthless over time.

[Madae]

How about empty shell casings; at least they are intrinsically valuable...

Do you really want to shoot your money at people?

[alexlaird87]

How about empty shell casings; at least they are intrinsically valuable...

Do you really want to shoot your money at people?

you would actually be creating money by shooting. people would want the casings so they could be reloaded...

[TΛPETRVE]

How about empty shell casings; at least they are intrinsically valuable...

Do you really want to shoot your money at people?

Why yes - actually, I'd vote for live rounds, not just shell casings. Having ammo as a currency allows for quite an interesting trading dynamic, in which "money" literally equals "power".

[CaptainPatch]

EDIT: Plus for currency, you want some common, but not too common. Bottle caps fit that bill perfectly.

How about empty shell casings; at least they are intrinsically valuable...

That's what I would opt for. Easy to tell the denomination of the "coin" simply by looking at the caliber of the casing. And about the only thing to take them out of circulation is if someone becomes able to do reloads 8 decades after the nukes stopped the manufacture of new cartridges and many years after the survivalists' reloading supplies got used up.

Do you really want to shoot your money at people?

Did you notice that word "empty"? Planning on throwing the empty casings at enemies?

[alexlaird87]

Why yes - actually, I'd vote for live rounds, not just shell casings. Having ammo as a currency allows for quite an interesting trading dynamic, in which "money" literally equals "power".

I don't like the idea of live rounds, i don't want to have to choose between a new armor i wanted to save up for and not being able to defend myself.

That is why i think the casings work better. they are valuable without being directly useful to the PC.

[Madae]

Did you notice that word "empty"? Planning on throwing the empty casings at enemies?

What about reloading them and shooting them again? Did you ever think of that?

[CaptainPatch]

Sure a person could use live rounds for "money". It would essentially a form of barter where the live round represents more wealth than an empty casing.

What about reloading them and shooting them again? Did you ever think of that?

Extensively: http://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1173 , http://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1773

[TΛPETRVE]

I don't like the idea of live rounds, i don't want to have to choose between a new armor i wanted to save up for and not being able to defend myself.

Metro 2033 did it in a very interesting way - it features 2 kinds of ammo, one being the cheap rounds manufactured everywhere in the game world that are worth rather little and are only available for small caliber guns and SMGs, the other being military grade pre-war ammo that is used for heavy weaponry and has to be salvaged from supply depots. So with a stash of pre-war ammo in your possession, you're basically sitting on a huge pile of power, but if you want to defend it, you have to choose between either taking equal chances and use your simple post-war arsenal - or getting out the heavy artillery, but literally burning up some of your money in the process.

[alexlaird87]

What about reloading them and shooting them again? Did you ever think of that?

sure you could, but that would be a service better left to the banks/reloaders who will trade you cases for live ammo.

[alexlaird87]

I have started a separate thread so I do not hijack this one

http://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1894
Also added it to google moderator
http://goo.gl/mod/w4Js

[Magna Centipede]

Why yes - actually, I'd vote for live rounds, not just shell casings. Having ammo as a currency allows for quite an interesting trading dynamic, in which "money" literally equals "power".

I don't like the idea of live rounds, i don't want to have to choose between a new armor i wanted to save up for and not being able to defend myself.

That is why i think the casings work better. they are valuable without being directly useful to the PC.

I do, I want hard choices. I want to feel like I'm surviving.

[Phaederuss]

EDIT: Plus for currency, you want some common, but not too common. Bottle caps fit that bill perfectly.

How about empty shell casings; at least they are intrinsically valuable...

Also, the inflation on bottle caps would mean that they would be constantly becoming more and more worthless over time.

/facepalm of the day

[alexlaird87]

/facepalm of the day

Not at all, compare;

Coins or bottle caps which have absolutely no use what-so-ever therefore have no intrinsic value

Shell casings which will be in demand for people to reload therefore do have intrinsic value