🪙 The Treasury of Lost Economies

“Before there were banks, there were buttons. And before those—bones.”

Trade and transaction are among the oldest behaviors of civilization. The Treasury of Lost Economies preserves the artifacts of forgotten currencies, defunct marketplaces, peculiar barter systems, and experimental financial schemes—some brilliant, some disastrous, all deeply telling.

This wing of the museum invites visitors to trace the story of how Eyehasseen once counted value, and how that value shifted through famine, fortune, war, and whim.

🏞️ The Stone-Weight Trade Period (ca. 1900–1600 BR)

“Heavy was the purse, and heavier still the payment.”

In the early agrarian valleys, wealth was measured in hand-carved river stones, each weighted and marked with clan sigils. Trade required oxen, carts, and muscle.

Economic Notes:

  • Value was tied to weight and stone type
  • Counterfeiting involved clever substitutions with painted pumice
  • Entire dowries were delivered by raft

Featured Artifacts:

  1. The Golden Obsidian of Clan Krull – estimated value: 30 goats.
  2. Split-Weight Tally Pair – one half kept by buyer, the other by seller.
  3. Stone-carver’s Seal of Market Validity – once wielded by the Merchant Lord of Drenness.
  4. Ledger-stone inscribed with early trade terms – includes “No goats, no grain.”
  5. Ornate wheelbarrow said to have transported bridal wealth – with gold-leaf spokes.

🧮 The Era of Tally-Mark Guilds (ca. 1500–800 BR)

“Not what you had—but what you promised to do.”

Guilds issued tokens representing labor owed rather than goods exchanged. Value was tracked in promissory tallies, often knotted, notched, or burned into thin wood slats.

Economic Notes:

  • Highly localized systems
  • Fraud was punished by shaving one’s accounting hand
  • “Work-chits” could be inherited or gifted

Featured Artifacts:

  1. Bundle of Shoemaker’s Tallies – notched with both orders and prayers.
  2. Baker’s Knotboard – each loop represented one loaf owed.
  3. Guildmaster’s Token Ring – could authorize, validate, or condemn trades.
  4. Whisper-Ledger of the Weavers’ Hall – entries made in symbolic shorthand.
  5. Ashwood Dispute Token – snapped in two during a violent market disagreement.

🍞 The Bread Teeth Currency Crisis (ca. 700–650 BR)

“In the year without coin, bread became gold.”

Following the collapse of the Silver Road mint, desperate provinces turned to bread-based bartering. Special ceramic “bread teeth” (small, tooth-like tokens) were created to represent loaves, but many were counterfeited in haste.

Economic Notes:

  • Bread tokens came in denominations: half-loaf, full-loaf, festival-loaf
  • Backed by royal grain stores
  • Eventually led to the Pastry Revolts

Featured Artifacts:

  1. Bread Tooth Standard Token Set – in preserved linen pouch.
  2. Royal Breadstamp with Crown Seal – only seven exist.
  3. The “Edible Ledger” – an actual baked account roll from a baker-scribe.
  4. Fragment of the Dough Rioters’ Banner – reads “No Crust Without Coin.”
  5. Royal Decree Condemning Bread as Legal Tender – issued angrily on stained parchment.

🎭 The Currency of Allegiance (ca. 500–300 BR)

“You did not pay with coin—you paid with loyalty.”

During civil unrest, factions issued symbolic currencies based on oaths of loyalty, sworn fealty, or secret allegiance. These tokens granted access to safehouses, markets, or protection.

Economic Notes:

  • Tokens often disguised as jewelry, song-lyrics, or stitching
  • Entire villages were “bought” with promises of future allegiance
  • Betrayal voided all issued value

Featured Artifacts:

  1. The Iron Tongue Token – passed hand-to-hand in silence.
  2. Quilt of the Faction of the Golden Hearth – loyalty stitched into fabric.
  3. Scroll of Market Exclusions – names those “no longer honored.”
  4. Oath-Coin cracked by firelight – a vow broken, visibly so.
  5. Cipher Ring of the Southern Compact – concealed numbers encoded by thumb position.

🪙 The Unified Coinage of Eyehasseen (0 R–Present)

“One crown, many faces.”

With the founding of the Kingdom came the first standardized coinage system, backed by royal vaults and overseen by the Ministry of Equitable Exchange. Coins now bear royal visages, mythic beasts, or provincial emblems.

Economic Notes:

  • Currency includes: Solars (gold), Moons (silver), and Sprigs (copper)
  • Commemorative issues released on feast days or anniversaries
  • Coins inscribed with the year of the Reckoning

Featured Artifacts:

  1. The First Solar of King Edmund I – rarely displayed, once lost in a bakery.
  2. Minting Die of the Royal Treasury – still used for ceremonial strikes.
  3. Mis-struck Moon Coin – features the royal ear on both sides.
  4. Merchant’s Weighted Pouch – marked by every city in the Realm.
  5. The “Last Sprig” of a Retired Stallkeeper – set in a locket, never spent.

The Treasury of Lost Economies is not simply about money. It is about memory—of worth, of value, of what people trusted when they could trust little else. Come walk the markets of the past and ask yourself: what would you have traded for bread?