Standard

The Standard is a unit of currency based on gold that is standardized and endorsed by the Mercantile Syndicate. In Syndicate territory, it is the most common currency handled by tradesmen and professionals alike. Lower classes strive for gold more in a symbolic sense, and may touch a handful of Standards in their lifetime. For the most part, they will use Silvers with 1/10th the value and Coppers with 1/100th the value.    Standard can be struck from 7 grams of pure gold gold to form a thin coin about 18 millimeters in diameter. But, for ease of handling, most mints strike the gold surrounded by a disk of stronger metal or alloy it with silver to form a larger electrum piece.   A Standard is usually considered to be worth 10 times its mass in silver, or 100 times its mass in cheaper metals like iron and copper. The Mercantile Syndicate endorses such exchange rates, but demand or abundance in local metal markets sometimes creates semi-legal "negotiated" rates.   The highly rare platinum is occassionally minted into coins to facilitate tradings in the thousands of Standards. As these coins can represent very high values, from 10 to 1000 times the value of a Standard, merchants tend to check them each individually for authenticity. This can end up being a time consuming process. Regardless, when buying a castle or large ship, platinum is the only way to avoid lugging tons of gold around.