What could be used as currency for a """prison"""

[heavyfuel]

Good morning, Playground!

For my next campaign, I was thinking about running it kinda like a prison-break type of game, except maybe not in the sense you might initially think of.

The setting is very loosely based on Australia in the 1800's: A distant island, far from anything that could be considered civilization, full of aggressive fauna and flora... The perfect place to send all your criminals to.

There is no actual prison with cells and whatnot. The island is the prison.

I am wondering, however, what could be used as currency between "inmates"?

Gold coins don't make much sense, neither do cigarette packs. I suppose players could barter one good or service for another, and while I do think this gives them some interesting quest hooks, bartering for every little thing will get tiresome pretty quickly.

Any ideas? Thanks!

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Edit: How's this idea?

What if the players still had "gold pieces", but these GP weren't actual coins, but the general worth of the supplies they have gathered so far.

For example, they find a sword worth 10gp. They don't add 'sword' to their inventory, but instead add '10gp'. When they get to a person willing to trade, they trade their "gold" for the NPC's stuff.

So, in game, an NPC might be willing to trade 2 swords, some animal hide, a couple of herbs, a few pieces of candy, and some fresh meat for their armor. But out of game, they are just trading 50 "GP" for the armor.

No fiat currency needed, just some abstraction.

Would this work?

[GentlemanVoodoo]

Good morning, Playground!

For my next campaign, I was thinking about running it kinda like a prison-break type of game, except maybe not in the sense you might initially think of.

The setting is very loosely based on Australia: A distant island, far from anything that could be considered civilization, full of aggressive fauna and flora, the perfect place to send all your criminals to.

There is no actual prison with cells and whatnot. The island is the prison.

I am wondering, however, what could be used as currency between "inmates"?

Gold coins don't make much sense, neither do cigarette packs. I suppose players could barter one good or service for another, and while I do think this gives them some interesting quest hooks, bartering for every little thing will get tiresome pretty quickly.

Any ideas? Thanks!

If your idea is more modern times then bartering with goods and services is the way to do it. Watch any prison documentary and besides cigarettes it is mostly things that can be bought from the Commissary like deserts, washing detergent, etc. As on services things even such as sewing clothing is a gold mine that will make one popular with the inmates. Also legal and medical services will be on top of the list. Since your doing this as an island prison, any person who has cooking or survival skills for hunting and shelter building will probably be quite wealthy.

[heavyfuel]

If your idea is more modern times then bartering with goods and services is the way to do it. Watch any prison documentary and besides cigarettes it is mostly things that can be bought from the Commissary like deserts, washing detergent, etc. As on services things even such as sewing clothing is a gold mine that will make one popular with the inmates. Also legal and medical services will be on top of the list. Since your doing this as an island prison, any person who has cooking or survival skills for hunting and shelter building will probably be quite wealthy.

I don't have "modern times" in mind, no.

It wasn't clear in the OP (my bad), but as far as technological advancements are concerned, something akin to late 1400's/early 1500's is the goal.

I do like the idea of a Commissary, though. A ship comes to shore on a regular basis and trades hides/ivory/gems for weapon/armor/food. I could see that working. These ships could even maybe trade for actual coin, which could be traded for goods at a later date?

[OldTrees1]

A luxury consumable that the prison permits the prisoners to have but controls the source of more of that consumables.

Candy for example.

[Grim Portent]

Good morning, Playground!

For my next campaign, I was thinking about running it kinda like a prison-break type of game, except maybe not in the sense you might initially think of.

The setting is very loosely based on Australia in the 1800's: A distant island, far from anything that could be considered civilization, full of aggressive fauna and flora... The perfect place to send all your criminals to.

There is no actual prison with cells and whatnot. The island is the prison.

I am wondering, however, what could be used as currency between "inmates"?

Gold coins don't make much sense, neither do cigarette packs. I suppose players could barter one good or service for another, and while I do think this gives them some interesting quest hooks, bartering for every little thing will get tiresome pretty quickly.

Any ideas? Thanks!

So the only guard presence is going to be a fort overseeing labour camps then? Or are the inmates left to roam the island as they see fit?

Either way the currency of choice is either going to be a fiat currency maintained by common agreement, like seashells, or some kind of fundamental survival good or luxury, preferably portable. Coconuts or other long lasting edible items, plants with some kind of chemical property similar to tobacco or marijuana, moonshine and other things of that sort.

[heavyfuel]

Both quotes below inspired an idea:

What if the players still had "gold pieces", but these GP weren't actual coins, but the general worth of the supplies they have gathered so far.

For example, they find a sword worth 10gp. They don't add 'sword' to their inventory, but instead add '10gp'. When they get to a person willing to trade, they trade their "gold" for the NPC's stuff.

So, in game, an NPC might be willing to trade 2 swords, some animal hide, a couple of herbs, a few pieces of candy, and some fresh meat for their armor. But out of game, they are just trading 50 "GP" for the armor.

No fiat currency needed, just some abstraction.

Would this work?


A luxury consumable that the prison permits the prisoners to have but controls the source of more of that consumables.

Candy for example.

I like the idea of a luxury consumable, but candy seems a bit too silly :smallbiggrin:


So the only guard presence is going to be a fort overseeing labour camps then? Or are the inmates left to roam the island as they see fit?

Either way the currency of choice is either going to be a fiat currency maintained by common agreement, like seashells, or some kind of fundamental survival good or luxury, preferably portable. Coconuts or other long lasting edible items, plants with some kind of chemical property similar to tobacco or marijuana, moonshine and other things of that sort.

I was going to have both.

You can stay in a fort and work in a labour camp in exchange for protection and shelter, or you can try your luck with local fauna and see how you like that.

[Grim Portent]

I think it would be best to have them list item(value) so they can work out how much something is worth in barter quickly rather than just having item=gp in their inventory. A lot of stuff is going to be useful for on the spot creative ideas, so having items be written down as a barter value alone could miss out on memorable moments of spontaneity.


And if there's going to be labour camps and free roamers, then that opens up the wonderful world of smuggling contraband! :smallbiggrin:

Hard labour is by definition hard work, and in a medieval environment that will have to come with some privileges to avoid a riot, as well as various necessities. Thin beer, filling if not necessarily enjoyable food, actual beds, latrines, clean clothes, access to a chapel and so on.

But obviously they're still inmates, so things like hard liqour and other luxuries would likely be forbidden, as well as any items of value found on the island that someone might want to use themselves or try to keep for if they ever get released. Precious metals or stones, rare plants and so forth. Wandering inmates, free from direct oversight but still trapped on the island, would be able to set up stills, bury stashes of supplies, hunt local wildlife and so on and trade it back to their comrades in the labour camps or even to the guards or supply ships in exchange for useful items. Raw silver or gold is useless to someone stuck in a camp, but if they get a friend to smuggle it out to the woods somewhere, then they can try to pick it up if their sentence ever ends and they can go back to civilisation.

I imagine a guard who's been stuck there for a year would be open to sneaking out a cooking pot or lantern in exchange for a bottle or two of strong moonshine, or labourers hiding valuable materials in a place the roamers can get to it in exchange for narcotics. A ship might be willing to give people salt in exchange for fresh food, similarly the guards commissary would likely be open to trading preserved food for fresh fruit and game animals hunted by the inmates.

[Pauly]

Historically in Australia it was rum

[Xuc Xac]

Holey Silver Pieces.

Historically, Australia and some other colonies had trouble with maintaining their currency supply. People would earn money in the colony then take the money away with them. This was mainly a problem with merchant ships bringing supplies, but it also happened with individuals moving around.

To solve the problem, they deliberately devalued their currency so the face value was greater than the metal value. In places that used "1 pound = 20 shillings", they punched a hole in a pound coin and said that the little circle from the middle of the coin was also worth a shilling, so 1 pound coin was worth 21 shillings in the colony.

In Australia, they used holey dollars. They punched small discs out of the center of $1 coins and said the small disc was worth 10 cents but the holey dollar was still worth $1. The two pieces were worth $1 in total of you took them out of Australia, but in the colony they were worth $1.10.

This encourages people leaving the island to spend all their cash on local trade goods before they go so the cash stays on the island. It also encourages traders to come to the island to buy local goods because their whole silver pieces are worth more so they can get more goods for their money, which is a useful incentive for a really out-of-the-way island.

Edit: I just looked it up and it was actually a 25% markup. They turned Spanish dollars worth 5 shillings (60 pence) into a 5 shilling coin and a 15 pence coin.

[Saintheart]

The second edition of Midnight for the d20 system has a fleshed out barter currency system.

[Mr Beer]

Historically in Australia it was rum

ding ding ding

If you want it to be convict-era Australian inspired, it should be rum and if you don't have the tech for distilled spirits, then just something that can be fermented.

[Mr Blobby]

Drawing from RL examples not mentioned yet;
- Money. As in, yes coin/note of the realm. Though more likely if there's also some guard/inmate trades going on too.
- Daily ration of X. I recall reading books about labour camps where items were 'valued' in daily standard ration of bread.
- Tobacco.
- Sugar.
- Scrip/tokens.

However, the 'what' is irrelevant, really. Basically, you need to make it fufill the criteria below.

- Long shelf life. (So your 'wealth' doesn't expire immediately).
- Relatively portable.
- Desired / has intrinsic value.
- Relatively 'stable' supply.

Now, reading what the OP has put in, I suggest their 'Commissary' idea is the best. I also have an idea to run it like this;

- Island has a port/trading station, staffed by the guards. They have a warehouse of generic basic goods, and each convict gets a 'ration' say monthly, new set of stripes every six months etc.
- Each convict also has an 'account' at the warehouse, valued in whatever currency is in use in the homeland. Oh, you've got 10 hides? I'll 'give' you £5 for them. Convict can then look in the 'stock book' [items in the warehouse] and 'buy' what they desire.
- Convict is also able to 'buy' scrip, which functions as a de facto currency, with is 'Commissary backed' for the convicts to use amongst selves.

But all this is, like RL Oz [like Xac points out] is at a huge mark-up in the Commissaries favour. This wasn't simply to 'keep the currency in the colony', but also...

- A plan to stop convicts getting *genuinely* rich and bribing the guards to let them escape.
- Ensuring the 'colony' turns a fat profit [as they control all prices].
- Destroy any chances of 'generational wealth' being built up [simply cancel old scrip every few years, wiping out 'mattress savings'].

To make it more interesting, throw in a few other options. Have the occasional 'independent trader' who travels about who also carries contraband, finding salvage on the coast and so on. That allows, naturally several routes of 'escape'.

But there is going to need to be items 'of worth' on the island to make 'trading' worthwhile.

[Anonymouswizard]

My first thoughts are relatively long term consumables. Assuming access to basic food (likely farmed by the inmates in some form) is relatively simple then I can see things like chocolate (or cocoa beans for 1400s tech?), tea, and good quality alcohol becoming a common means of exchange. If not it's very easy to see something like a day's worth of bread being used.

A post-apocalyptic system I'm writing assumes that barter is mainly conducted in Food, Ammunition, and Parts. The assumption is that the relative values are fairly stable, so a unit of each is the same when bartering and the individual totals mostly limit what you can do outside of civilisation. You could use a similar idea if you can think of multiple worthwhile standards.

[ross]

Since we don't know the specific details of your setting, the best thing we can do is to identify the properties that make an object or substance useful as a currency. When I needed to do this for my setting, I proceeded by comparing bottle caps from fallout to real world currency, and asking myself what they have in common. What I found:

A currency item should be durable. This is of course debatable in the case of paper money, but it holds up pretty well when in its usual context - sitting in a wallet or register, or moving between hands. And paper money is easy enough to replace. In the case of metal money and caps, their durability is much more obvious.

The items should be interchangeable (fungible). This is pretty straightforward. One item of a given type has the same value as any other.

The items must strike a balance between sufficiently rare to not be worthless, and sufficiently common to function as a medium for value exchange for a population. This might be arranged by government fiat, or by inherent rarity. For example, the amount of silver / gold in the world is fixed. In the case of caps, they are quite common as a result of mass production in the past, but the means to manufacture them no longer exists, so inflation is unlikely to ever be a concern.

Currency items typically are compact, light, easy to handle, and easy to store. Cash can be stacked and bound, coins and bottlecaps can be stacked and sorted, etc. Exactly how important this is depends greatly on the particulars of the setting - if extradimensional storage is common, it will likely be less important.

The items must be difficult to counterfeit. Cash and coins have special minting techniques, and anti counterfeiting measures; bottlecaps in fallout simply cannot be made, as mentioned. Some people used natural substances like shells or salt, which has to be extracted.

So for starters, a good candidate for a currency item should be durable, fungible, sort of rare, ergonomic, compact, hard to produce, and hard to fake. Is there anything on the island that has most or all of these qualities?

Edit : completely disregarded barter. Of course, you may have a currency alongside a barter system, or only one or the other.

[Pauly]

Since we don't know the specific details of your setting, the best thing we can do is to identify the properties that make an object or substance useful as a currency. When I needed to do this for my setting, I proceeded by comparing bottle caps from fallout to real world currency, and asking myself what they have in common. What I found:

A currency item should be durable. This is of course debatable in the case of paper money, but it holds up pretty well when in its usual context - sitting in a wallet or register, or moving between hands. And paper money is easy enough to replace. In the case of metal money and caps, their durability is much more obvious.

The items should be interchangeable (fungible). This is pretty straightforward. One item of a given type has the same value as any other.

The items must strike a balance between sufficiently rare to not be worthless, and sufficiently common to function as a medium for value exchange for a population. This might be arranged by government fiat, or by inherent rarity. For example, the amount of silver / gold in the world is fixed. In the case of caps, they are quite common as a result of mass production in the past, but the means to manufacture them no longer exists, so inflation is unlikely to ever be a concern.

Currency items typically are compact, light, easy to handle, and easy to store. Cash can be stacked and bound, coins and bottlecaps can be stacked and sorted, etc. Exactly how important this is depends greatly on the particulars of the setting - if extradimensional storage is common, it will likely be less important.

The items must be difficult to counterfeit. Cash and coins have special minting techniques, and anti counterfeiting measures; bottlecaps in fallout simply cannot be made, as mentioned. Some people used natural substances like shells or salt, which has to be extracted.

So for starters, a good candidate for a currency item should be durable, fungible, sort of rare, ergonomic, compact, hard to produce, and hard to fake. Is there anything on the island that has most or all of these qualities?

Edit : completely disregarded barter. Of course, you may have a currency alongside a barter system, or only one or the other.

In New Guinea sea shells were sometimes used as a proto-currency.

[Easy e]

These can be really fun campaigns.

I think a big inspiration for this type of game when I played it was the movie "No Escape" from the late 80's.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110678/

[Kesnit]

Edit : completely disregarded barter. Of course, you may have a currency alongside a barter system, or only one or the other.

You beat me to barter.

From what I've heard, skills like cooking and sewing are like gold in prison. Being able to take basic foods and make real meals is a treasure. Being able to take basic clothes and make them fit can do wonders.

[Mr Blobby]

Yet this is not strictly speaking, a prison [by the description by the OP]. It's more an early colonial settlement by folks who didn't have a choice to be there.

[Kane0]

The setting is very loosely based on Australia in the 1800's: A distant island, far from anything that could be considered civilization, full of aggressive fauna and flora... The perfect place to send all your criminals to.

There is no actual prison with cells and whatnot. The island is the prison.

I am wondering, however, what could be used as currency between "inmates"?


Speaking as an Aussie, I think you may mean 'penal colony'. Convicts were typically put to work and that work was important for the survival of the colony so most trade goods became valuable barter fodder.
For the convicts themselves, rations and importantly alcohol were the biggest thing, followed by comfort and entertainment like clothes, playing cards/dice, and so on.
If you wanted to just pick a random item to use as a universal convict currency, i'd suggest nails. Theyre accessible, useful, limited in supply, easy to carry and count and most importantly concealable.