Well, yes and no. The Roman currencies were somewhat arbitrarily named (Aside from Talents, which were next to impossible to use in day-to-day transactions), and I'll be damned if I can figure out where "Dollar" comes from, let alone "Yen," "Yuan," or any of the tons and tons of currencies floating around the world market today. Older currencies? Sure.
Edit for Priam: So "Dollar" comes from "Taler." Wonderful! And now all you need to do is tell me what quantity "Taler" stands for and you've made a point, otherwise Taler is just a semi-arbitrary name from which other semi-arbitrary names are derived.
One thing you could do is not really have a unified currency but different currencies minted by the different Orders- The way money used to work is that each bank produced its own money to be drawn against its own stores of gold and/or silver. That's where the saying "Show me the color of your money" comes from; not every bank used the same dye for their cash and so you might be able to identify the worth of a bank note by checking its coloration or how faded it is. Monetary policy is slightly tighter today in countries with hard currency, but some places still have the "each bank mints their own" idea. Really, the whole "unified currency" thing only works if everything is made of a precious material and only one group mints the currency so each thing is exactly the same size (doesn't work very well- people would file down the coins, use them again, and then sell the shavings), you have marks in a government or ruling body which will honor its worth if the note is presented (which is the bank example), or only the extremely wealthy or powerful ever touch money in the first place and everyone else kind of relies on barter and proper leadership for their needs (Like the feudal eras).
I could see the "separate currencies" thing working, with each currency having a name tied to the dogma of the Order that mints it. A currency might be stronger in areas where a certain Order has more pull or weaker in a more remote area.
Money is serious business. I guess it just depends how closely you want your system to mirror reality. Most of those suggestions has a "there is a central authority that everyone listens to" idea to enforce the single currency. If you don't really care about how realistic your monetary system is right now, then pick a name and be done with it, I guess.
I mean, you don't HAVE to mimic reality exactly. You don't have to mimic reality at all.
The technical term of the British currency is "Pounds Sterling," I believe. At some point in time, each mark was the effective value of a pound of refined silver, hence the name. I could easily be wrong about this, though. <p>[---------------------------]
"There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent."
-Mao Tse-Tung
"I eat the talking bees because I am George Washington Christ"
-From "Bob the Ball"</p>
Edited by: The Great Nevareh at: 2/6/05 5:43
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 10:18 pm
at: 2/5/05 6:42