Economy and trading:
Currencies in the Wasteland
Basics
In principle, there is one universal currency and several others, that stand in competition to it. The NCR Dollar, usually abbreviated with $ in these texts, is not it. Wait, why are all prices given in NCR Dollars if that’s the case? Simple. There is no symbol for caps, and the NCR is rather huge and the future belongs to currencies like the Dollar.
This universal currency is, you already thought of it, caps: Crown caps from before the Great War, with which Nuka Cola bottles were sealed. One of the many problems with caps is however, the amount of them. There is only one form of caps: 1 cap. Paying for goods worth ten thousand caps is
accordingly difficult which was one of the main reasons for the introduction of the NCR Dollar. The following shows an overview over the various currencies, how they translate to NCR Dollars and who issues and uses them.
Those who prefer caps to Dollars, should simply regard NCR Dollars as caps.
NCR-Dollar
Who issues them: The NCR of course. Details can be found on the pages about the NCR. The conversion to caps is usually 1 to 1.
In which sizes do they come:
The NCR issues coins and bills in the following denominations:
One one face, it always shows the seal of state, on the 1 $ coin also the head of president Aradesh. On the 2 $ coin, the Golden Gate Bridge as a symbol for a bridge to a new California and on the 5 $ coin, the vault door of Vault 13 (which the designer imagined after looking at the door of Vault 15).
The front of the bills always show the state seal, the backside shows various buildings in the large cities.
Coins:
1 $
2 $
5 $
Bills:
5 $
10 $
20 $
100 $
500 $
Back side:
Vault Dweller memorial in Shady Sand
Market place in the Hub
City gate of Junktown
University of the Followers in the Boneyard
Ranger Barracks in Junktown
Casino-Chips
Who issues them:
The three largest Families in New Reno issue these chips for their casinos. That means, the Salvatores, the Bishops and the Mordinos. The Chips are an accepted payment option anywhere in New Reno, no matter which Family issued the Chip. There is a Gentleman's
Agreement, that the exchange offices in the Casinos, also take the chips of the other Families and exchange them for chips of their own Family.
In which sizes do they come:
The chips come only in form of plastic coins. The following denominations are usual: 1 $ in white, 5 $ in Blue, 25 $ in yellow, 100 $ in red and 1000 $ in black. The front shows the value in golden letters, and the back the logo of the issuing casino, in the same
color. It seems unnecessary to mention, that the casinos go violently against any counterfeiters.
The Dollar of the People
Who issues them: The Shi issue their own dollar, which they trade one to one for NCR dollars. Shi merchants take, with great pleasure, NCR Dollars, but are bound by law, to only return Dollars of the People. The front always shows the entrance to the Imperial Palace. The backside various other
designs. The Dollar of the People is only available in bills in the following denominations:
In which sizes do they come:
Bills:
1 $
5 $
10 $
20 $
100 $
500 $
Back side:
A portrait of Lee Feng, Captain of the Shi-Huang-Ti
The arch that decorates the entrance to Chinatown
Crossed butterfly swords
A lotus blossom
A scenery of San Francisco's harbor
The Shi-Huang-Ti anchored in the San Francisco bay
Vault-City allocation warrants
Who issues them: Vault-City’s allocation warrants are no currency in the classical sense, but instead IOUs saved in the Vault computers, each point roughly correspondent to an NCR Dollar. Traders usually get the option to be either paid for their goods in allocation warrants or to get less
money in NCR Dollars. The disadvantage is, that the allocation warrants can only be spent in Vault-City.
In which sizes do they come: Since it’s purely electronically saved data, they are available in any integer value.