Fantasy Cliches #1: Gold

 Biggus Dickus emblazons the Aureii.

Here's the segment where I poke a little fun at myself and the rest of the fantasy writing community by exposing some cliches. This week's offering is Gold.

We know it and love it. It sparks wars and conquest, wins the hearts of countless princesses, and inspires villainy. When an author wants to instill awe, the usual resort is gold. Hem dresses with it, drape it across a nubile slave girl, and stack it in mountains through a dragon's hoard. You can't go wrong with gold, right?

Cliches are usually in place for a reason. We like money and valuable things like rare metals. Silver and gold were our natural currency for thousands of years and even straight up until the 1930's. When we want to show the stakes are high and the rewards great, a sizable treasure is visibly appealing and recognizable. I'm not saying I wouldn't mind raiding a demon's loot for the yellow shinies, and that's why we are easily seduced by this cliche.

Gold is valuable. Gold is rare, but we seem to forget that latter part when it comes time to pay the tab. That's why gold is a cliche this week.

Currency is one of the biggest, most complicated ideas we can embrace through our natural hunter gatherer origins. When did we decide bits of inedible metal were more sought after than a deer or some grain? I won't even go into Executive Order 6102 that changed us over to bits of paper and even cheaper metal. It is what it is, though, and the aesthetic appeal of the metal is without doubt.

However, currency, like all human-wrought inventions, has rules and standards. Literally, the gold standard. We seem to forget that when we read a sweeping tale of treasure hunting pirates who don't seemed phased at paying their ale bills with Florins. Today, an ounce of gold bounces around $1600, and even older coins are valued for their much higher gold content.

That doesn't mean no one can have gold. If anything, your fantasy world may be rich in the mineral as a key point of interest for invaders. You just have to write your rules down and stick to them. If gold is in abundance, what is truly valuable to the locals? How do you value an exchange across the border?

A Koban isn't nearly as tasty as rice.

The Japanese had a clever solution in their gold Koban coin. Rice is the most valuable grain in all of Japan. It is still a staple in the every day meal and was the fine line between starvation and flourishing for centuries. Rice was so valuable, many farmers paid their taxes in shares of their crops for that year. When the Portuguese arrived, they preferred gold. The Koban offered a good bridge. The coin was the equivalent of one year's worth of grain for one person. In exchange for the Koban coins, the government would distribute the rice from their coffers or vice versa. Of course, as time wore on, cheaper metals were added to the gold, and the older, purer coins became more valuable than a mere one year's grain.

In England, a small chest was unearthed containing 43 aureii or Roman gold coins. At the height of Roman conquest with gold pouring in from every corner of the known world, this was four years worth of a Roman soldier's salary, and he hoarded this treasure in a faraway land with no taverns to spend it on. Imagine a soldier today returning from his tour and remembering he hadn't had to spend money on food, lodging or clothing for the last four years. Unless he sent it back to family to spend, he would have a pretty tidy stock to live off of.

You can use gold and silver in fantasy writing. You just have to figure out the conversions and the practicality. One of my biggest pet peeves is reading a book and seeing the main character spend money thoughtlessly. Particularly, when a character spends 75 silver pieces for a sword made of cheap steel, and then, he turns around and buys a silver mirror for 25. First, at what point do the conversions matter enough that carrying 100 heavy metal coins around is better than one expensive coin and a couple smaller? 100 quarters would tear my purse apart for $25 worth of currency total. Better yet, why aren't there banking systems and writs? That sort of system was very well established in the Roman times. The other point is the metal, again. Wouldn't melting the mirror down produce more silver than what you spent? The base reason why gold is still valuable in any form is you can melt it down and reshape it easily. Silver is the same. A coin from Spain or England didn't matter as long as the purity and weight were roughly equal to your price.

If you're going to use gold, establish what it's worth. Otherwise, you're going to have a detached world where a gold coin will buy an apple or an orchard without any logic to it.