Neverwinter hasn’t minted all that often, thanks to using the coins of everywhere else (Waterdeep in particular) in trade. It uses and honors the usual copper, silver, electrum, gold, platinum progression with the usual values, but its own coins have changed in shape and size over the years.
Current specific Neverwintan mintings:
- Copper piece (keystone shape, the 8-rayed snowflake of Neverwinter on the front, a hand gripping an upright forgehammer on the back) is a “tharn” (in Neverwinter’s earliest days, this coin was a “teth”).
- Silver piece (isoceles triangle shape, “long point” is “down,” the 8-rayed snowflake of Neverwinter on the front, a stylized cog under full sail [side-on, fat cargo ship] on the back) is a “bult,” but thanks to its shape, is sometimes also called a “shield” (Silverymoon’s name for the silver piece).
- Electrum piece (long-crescent-moon shape, rounded ends not points, the 8-rayed snowflake of Neverwinter on the front, and three identical parallel bowed-up-in-the-middle arcs, in a vertical column one atop the other, representing the three landmark bridges of the city) is a “sea-shee.”
- Gold piece (hexagon shape, thick and heavy, the 8-rayed snowflake of Neverwinter on the front, and a side-on 8-toothed cog atop a half-circle, or side-on stylized bowl, together representing a water-clock, as in “the clocks of Neverwinter” on the back) is a “dragon” (the same name borne by a gold coin in Waterdeep).
- Platinum piece (oval shape) is a “fairsail.” Dagult Neverwinter put his own head (in profile, looking left) on the front, and the 8-rayed snowflake of Neverwinter on the back, but all other mintings of this coin have the snowflake on the front, and a hyperbolic triangle, curve uppermost, on the back [a stylized sail filled by a fair wind]).
In the past, Neverwinter has minted two special local coins: a “talmoon” (rhombus shape, small, made of mithril, with the 8-rayed snowflake on the front and a four-pointed star on the back) that’s worth 20 gp (and would be 20-25 gp elsewhere just for the mithril content) and a “neverstar,” which is a flattened capsule shape [rectangle with symmetrical rounded ends] of platinum set with a central cabochon-cut rounded violet garnet (worth 500 gp).
This article is an excerpt from a much larger article on coins of the realm which can be found on Ed’s Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/some-notes-about-82365308
In addition to more content, the article is narrated by Ed himself!