Herald of Steel

Chapter 556 Visiting The Royal Mint

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As discussed previously, there were several reasons a noble would want to mint his own coin.

There was the factor of economic control where minting one's own coins allowed the noble to exercise greater control over their own local economies.

For instance, first and foremost by issuing their own currency, they could regulate the flow of money, set exchange rates, and even manipulate the value of their coins to suit their interests, thus providing them with quite a bit of degree of economic autonomy and influence over trade and commerce within their territories.

Then there was the symbol of authority as a personal coinage served as a powerful symbol of sovereignty and authority.

By minting their own coins, nobles could showcase their status and legitimacy as rulers, with many times their images, inscriptions, and emblems on the coins reflecting the noble's lineage, titles, or significant events related to their reign.

It served as a tangible representation of their power and reinforced their position in society as for most people, the face engraved on the coin served to remind them of their fiefdom lord and was also likely the closest they would get to ever seeing their fiefdom lord or any noble for that matter in their lifetime.

Afterward came profits and seigniorage, where minting coins could be a lucrative source of revenue for nobles.

They could charge a fee, known as seigniorage, for minting the coins, which essentially amounted to a tax on the coinage.

It was kind of like a weird income tax, where a noble generated revenue by mining money for himself, reporting it as income and then taxing it, all for it to end up in his own pocket, which was a legal loophole if there ever was.

But this a perfectly legal system, and it was not only like it was a hallmark of only this period of time, as even in modern countries in Alexander's previous life, this was a legitimate tactic, where printing money actually generated tax earnings for a government.

So all this meant that by controlling the minting process, nobles could generate income from the production and circulation of coins, contributing to their wealth and financial stability.

And lastly there was the already discussed convenience of trade through standardization of currency.

The combination of all this made Alexander very much want the rights to the ropals, and even though Ptolomy was at first a bit reluctant, saying things like, "Shouldn't Lord Alexander be more focused on solving his immediate predicament?" but with Pasha Farzah and Queen Mother and even Lady Inayah's father urging, he soon acquiesced.

Among them Pasha Farzah's urging stood out the most, exalting Ptolomy as such,

"Your Majesty, it is quite alarming for Tibias to attack us."

"Hence I believe we should give Pasha Alexander all the tools he needs to grow and become powerful as soon as possible so that he can defend his lands!"

With his formal request, and under Queen Mother's urging in private, Ptolomy at last gave Alexander the right to mint the ropals, in exchange for his brown sugar and paper-making technique.

And two days later even took him on a visit to the royal mint to show how each coin was made so that Alexander could set up his own facilities and most importantly of all hand over the precious die, which was the blueprint using which the ropals were printed.

Alexander naturally had never been to the royal mint before, and so as he stepped out of his carriage, he was a bit surprised to see the mint being actually housed inside a temple, being guarded by very strong-looking men garbed in the distinct priest uniform over their armor, while similar men and women of faith were seen going in and out of the building.

Its size was second to few other buildings in the city but interestingly it was not really grand, as if it wanted to stay as inconspicuous as soon, giving it the appearance of being just a large temple for some exclusive purpose that the public did not know and which was only accessible to the clergymen.

After getting over his initial surprise, as Alexander gazed at the mint and thought about it for a second, he actually found the mint being inside a temple not too strange, for it was pretty normal that the theocratic Adhania would choose to enshrine the place where their wealth was literally created inside a god's personal house, both as a sign of respect and security, believing no one would dare to steal from a god.

"There are many mints under the royal family. But this here is the largest and most produces the most coins." It was Ptolomy who said this as he led Alexander inside, with him choosing to personally accompany Alexander given the importance of the building.

The existence of many mints making the ropal did not surprise Alexander at all, as one mint could never make enough coins quickly enough or distribute them fast enough.

So these mints that the royal family had were all placed in strategic locations, taking into consideration factors such as accessibility to natural resources so that the precious metals can be easily gathered, the availability of trade routes so the freshly minted coins can be easily released into the market, and lastly administrative convenience, which both meant security concerns and ease of controlling the mint.

"My liege, my lrod, welcome. We are honored," As soon as Alexander and Ptolomy and their entourage entered the temple, the one in charge of the mint, a bald priest name Jilam trotted over with a great smile and a flushed face, bowing and greeting them, and then proceeded to give them a tour of the place.

Entering inside Alexander noticed the internal structure of the mint to be huge, being fortified a wooden complex consisting of various buildings and workshops, with huge ceilings but actually very few windows, deliberately done so as if to shield all eyes away from peeking, making the inside a bit dark, for the soft glow of many large lit braziers inside could never compete with the sun itself.

Alexander also found the inside quite warm given not only the light source but also all the smelting going on, which actually made it very comfortable given the current outside temperature, though he dreaded to think how this place would feel like in summer.

Having had these thoughts, Alexander then found his eyes very strongly drawn to a giant hearth that stood in the middle of the building, one around which many priests seemed to be working.

And noticing Alexander's gaze, Jilam quickly introduced, "Ahh, this is where we collect, refine, purify, and alloy the metals to the desired composition for the coins."

"We first receive our metals, either from the nearby mines or from general traders, and are all melted in that furnace into appropriate proportions."

Jilam very succinctly gave the description of the use of the huge hall room they were in, with the process he described seemingly being quite labor-intensive, as Alexander figured there were at least over a hundred priests, present there doing just that.

And once Alexander had some time to view all f this, Jilam then offered, "Your Grace, let us now go to the main workshop. That is where all the coins are made."

So at the priest's behest, the entourage quickly entered through a narrow corridor, and along the way, Alexander noticed that guards were posted along every entrance and exit way, obviously there to ensure the security of the minting process and the valuable materials involved.

And these armed and armored priests were posted there for both their competence and their loyalty and knew their job well enough that only people they knew by face could go in or out.

But naturally, Alexander's group was let in through as if they were the wind, and so after some twists and turns they turned up at a room whose entrance read 'Engraving Room' on a giant wooden plague.

Here, Alexander peeked inside to see talented many artists and engravers were busy creating intricate designs on metal dies, which looked exactly like the ones on the ropals.

It would not be wrong to say this room was the heart of the mint as this was where the pressing die for the coin was created.

And it was a very skilled process indeed.

Following this was the die-preparation area close to the engraving room where the newly engraved metal dies made of bronze or iron, were shaped and polished to ensure clear and precise coin impressions.

There came the dedicated part of the workshop called the 'Coin striking area' where skilled minters were seen placing the prepared metal blanks or planchets between the engraved dies and then strike them with hammers or mechanical presses, the pressure from which would imprint the design onto the planchet, creating a coin.

And seeing the coin being made, although Alexander knew about this before, he still was surprised how each coin had to be made by hand.

It was truly a laborious process.

Then he was led to the last room, which was actually a Quality Control Station, where there were inspectors examining random samples of coins to ensure they met the required weight, purity, and standard of workmanship.

It was the work of this station that worked to keep the people's confidence in the ropal, as they worked to prevent fraud and maintain the public trust, using scales and measuring instruments to check the weight and size of the coins, and also various other strange techniques which Alexander could not understand to determine the gold purity.

All to ensure every coin met their standard before they were released for circulation.

And seeing all this came an end to Alexander's visit to the mint.