This content is about using gold coins, the in-game soft currency. Not to be confused with the hard currency Avalon CROWN bought with real money and used for real purchase (see HELP CROWNS).
The gold coin is used within Avalon as a universal soft currency and it defines your wealth in the land. Hard currency is used for OOC purchasing (subscription, procurement, special offers, trinkets, goods and services from the curiosity shop) but the gold coin is used everywhere else: in Avalon's in-role shops and markets, for commodity trading, for expenses and ministry business, for funding warfare and armies and campaigns, the list goes on. At the start you have very little gold but Avalonians quickly learn how to earn. Most cities have gold quests and gold acquiring duties (like mining, for the city or guild) documented in the CHELP index.
For most their first purses of gold coins as a novice or newly graduated apprentice will be short-lived. They tend to come from kindly donation from city or from guildmates and there is much to be purchased: clothing to suit your personality and role, basic potions and runes of protection and magical artifacts to keep yourself safe, food and adventuring staples like a backpack, a lockable chest, pipes, snowshoes, herb poches, a first weapon and piece of armour, the choice is legion. Gold coins weigh 1/100th of a pound, so one hundred gold coins weigh a single pound as far as your inventory limits are concerned.
Syntax: GET <amount> COINS.
If you are lucky enough to find gold lying around, you may pick it up either by typing GET COINS, which will collect all that is within the location, or else you may type GET <amount> COINS in order to pick up a smaller amount than is piled before you.
Syntax: DROP <amount> COINS.
If you wish to drop gold, type DROP <amount> COIN to discard some - remember the amount should be a number, e.g. DROP 10 COIN to drop ten gold coins.
Syntax: GIVE <amount> COINS TO <person>.
You may want to shower your friends with golden coins and this is done using the GIVE command. You type GIVE then the <amount> COINS and then TO <person> to hand over the specified amount.
Once your fortune is considerable however, you will be looking towards safeguarding it, and there is no better place to do so than in a city bank. Most bank their money in their home city although you may choose to bank with whichever city you wish. If you are slain, remember, you will drop gold held openly (as opposed to stashed in a backpack, for instance) and your possessions may be at risk. Gold banked is absolutely safe and though it is subject to city authorities, their banks would go bankrupt very quickly if they failed to honour commitments to depositers. Some cities tax earnings but this is a matter between you and your city. Most are happy to pay a small tax since it supports the homeland's defence and support of novices and provision of sentinels and watchmen to keep the streets safe. Gold concealed in chests and strong boxes tends to avoid tax and notice but this subterfuge is frowned upon by the city government and, if carried on your person, is a target for burglary.
See also HELP BANKS and HELP INVEST.
