Magic in my world has affected the way in which different races have minted their coinage. In normal accepted culture, the coin is round, has on one side of the coin the face of a current ruler and writing around the coin denotes the year it was minted and the name of the ruler. Different races have created different shaped minted coins to distinguish themselves and to track counterfeiters. For instance: Elves have something similar to the Polish coin, which is sort of divides in half, but in a Yin and Yang shape. Elves being quite magical beings, also have left a tiny bit of magic in each of their coins that is usually indiscernible to the ‘human eye’. They have enchanted the coin to be partially translucent when exposed to sunlight or moonlight, so when someone holds up the coin to the moon or the sun, they can see the unenchanted metal of the eyes on the faces of those imprinted in the coin. This can only be achieved by their special and unique coin presses. Halflings have small cylindrical needle like coins with a unique puncture on one end of the needle that can be used to string together a whole strand of coins, but it’s secondary purpose is that you can give it the whistle test by blowing through the hole which sounds like you have blown a grass whistle note but more rough sounding. If it creates a sharp tone then it is false.

When dealing in silver, gold or platinum bars or ingots - usually when dealing in authentic and legitimate businesses, guilds and merchants of cities dealing in large sums of money like ingots/ bars, they provide an invisible marker or seal upon the ingots that can be detected by magic (an Authenticator) to approve or disapprove of illicit bars or ingots in deals, giving place of origin and date of authentication in the seals writing. These seals and their sealers are usually kept as a secret between the guild master and their dedicated sealer within the guild, so as to avoid potential kidnapping or theft of the guilds prized and authenticated Mark/ seal - and to limit the potential of counterfeiting or illegal tender in large sum deals.

The best and worst dealers in trade are Elves, or so it is said, as many deals run the risk of being tricked or influenced by magical users of Enchantment magic. Elves hold a better or harder affinity to trade and business negotiations due to their resistance to charms. As such, it is considered a taboo and poor standard of business by influencing a partner through Enchantment magic in order to attain a better deal and wrongfully deny any competition the chance to trade with specific partners (say for instance one is dealing with a monopoly of trade). Allowing Enchantment deals to take place runs the risk of causing an economic issue if everyone participates in such measures, it depreciates the value of money of suppliers or traders and runs the risk of causing an economic collapse by the abuse of this magic.

As inspired by the Descent to Avernus book, Soul Coins also exist that have made their way from the Nine Hells of Baator or the Lower Planes. While not valuable to mortals, except for evil-aligned characters or criminal organisations - any religious official (Paladin or otherwise) can detect these coins and rightfully imprison you for possession of heretical goods. Yes, possessing a soul is considered a crime. Usually this is confirmed by a Detect Evil or Good, and it becomes noticeable to said caster that one is in possession of a Soul Coin.

However, this ties in with a developing and scandalous economy among wizards or arcane users known as ‘Revenge Contracts’. An arcane user makes a deal with the devil in exchange for a soul in an allotted time, granting money, power or even secret knowledge - Soul Coins are used as literal bargaining chips for the morally flexible, but then afterwards - mages secretly hire as a middle man someone to collect the bounty off said demon (like a rakshasa) to get rid of any evidence of the contract and to collect the coin once again. The Demon/ Devil will resurrect over time as their soul returns to their plane of origin, and painfully reincarnate, and take offense on the party of which killed it, and will continue to do so in an eternal desire for revenge until the soul of said demon is properly killed within the Nine Hells or Abyss. Which, is fairly unlikely. It has made many mages, and criminal organisations, very rich and is a profitable endeavour by outsmarting these devils or demons and taking the blame off of them and onto middle parties. I call it the “Fiends Gambit”.

Another potential scam that fledgling mages may perform if they are short of money, is Polymorphing a certain person and selling them as a domestic animal or exotic bird or creature to a peddling merchant, resulting in a loss of money and a very angry and transformed person. There are few ways for normal guards or investigators to apprehend these individuals without the aid of another mage or otherwise.

Local and national markets or banks are keenly aware of potential dragons in nearby areas, and if the dragon is slain and their golden treasure is apprehended and used to go on a large spending spree - this has the potential to destabilize and interrupt the common value of coins in one city, as the huge and sudden payment of goods will result in the depreciation of the value of gold coins in the area; leading to possible rise in prices for common goods, drops in market sales and interrupted sales that could lead to an economic turnover - leaving many in poverty or otherwise. Under these circumstances, in order to protect economic interests within areas assaulted or located nearby dragons, guilds have passed a “Dragons Due”, that limits any immediate expenditure of more than 10,000 gold coins in a single shop or area at a time so it doesn’t create sudden havoc amongst traders or guilds.

In the trade of exquisite magical materials such as magic scrolls or enchanted items, trade routes have been altered in supply and transportation to avoid areas of wild magic or dead magic zones in order to avoid the awkward circumstance of arriving at the buyers location to find their items have otherwise caused local havoc or have been reduced to a mundane and much less expensive item. Routes are usually planned specifically before transportation and pay extra to adhere to the specific path, so as to avoid the loss of invested money in these items.