Below is a look at Aradath Currency (Past and Present) ...

There's a few key points to understand about the world of Aradath and the resulting effects on the economy that I should cover real quick. There are very, very few organized governments in the world anymore after the collapse of the Frontacian Empire and most of them still operate in much the same way as the Empire did before it fell. Think of the dark ages after the Roman Empire collapsed for reference.

After the Empire collapsed, there was little to tie one city-state to another within the known world once they lost the common bond of the Empire or the hatred of it. The only common ties were religion, commerce and money. No need to go into religion here, but this is one of the chief reasons why the Merchant's Guild has so much power. The Merchant's Guild was one of the vestiges of Empire that survived and flourished in the disintegration of the Empire, chiefly due to the fact none of the city-states could sustain themselves without relying upon resources controlled by other city-states. Someone had to maintain the trade routes and ensure they stayed open, a task the city-states could not afford either monitarily, politically or population-wise. You have to remember, the Empire had become extremely corrupt and dictatorial in its decline. One of the policies the Empire implemented to hopefully quell the outbreaks of rebellion and dissent was to ferment and play upon the natural suspicions and prejudices against the various cultures of race, religion and city. This survived the collapse of the Empire, which lead to most of the city-states not trusting their neighboring city-states to not try to use the armies raised to protect trade as armies of conquest. So the Merchant's Guild, the one Frontacian Empire structure found in every city-state, became the solution. They employed the remains of the legions as guards for caravans and to weed out the pockets of outlaws found around the known world. Over time the Merchant's Guild became the defacto political power in many areas because of this and the resulting riches that poured into the Guild.

Now then, how that all relates to the question of coinage and minting...

The monetary system is little changed from the days of Empire, and there are more than a few coins in circulation are ones that were minted during the days of Empire. The people hired by the Merchant's Guild to work the caravans (both wagon and barge), the guards for the caravans and the troops that patroled the roads needed to be paid, so the Merchant's Guild paid from their coffers. In the early years after the collapse of the Empire, everyone still used the same coins. there was little need to go to the expense of minting new ones and assigning value to them when there was already a standard in place.

The Merchant's Guild established the Rasnian Bank as a way to distribute pay to its employees and as a way for them to keep their coins stored while traveling the trade routes to keep them safe from bandits. They could deposit most of their pay in one city, spend two months on the road, arrive in a new city and withdraw the coins they deposited. Eventually, the supply of coins minted during the days of Empire wasn't enough, so the Merchant's Guild had the Rasnian bank mint more coins to keep the monetary supply stable.

Thus, the city-states don't mint their own currency. The various banks do, mainly the Rasnian Bank. The coins are fairly standard, with the differences usually not being in the newly-minted ones but the ones from the days of the Empire. Various coins were minted to celebrate emperors and other heroes, and each Legion stamped the respective Legion's crest upon the coins they paid their soldiers with. Of course, there are also coins that exist from the days before the Empire was founded.

GOLD COIN