What was a silver dollar?
When Lake first picked up this silver coin manufactured by modern industry, he seemed to fall under a spell, his eyes glued to it.
Though the clerk considered this silver dollar worth only "one dollar," enough to buy a packet of iron nails, Lake saw it as an astonishing work of art.
First, its material struck Lake as utterly novel.
In Bagnia, and even within Minisia, currency mostly consisted of crude silver or copper coins, their surfaces often worn until the markings were indistinct.
This silver dollar, however, had a smooth, refined texture, as though it had been painstakingly polished countless times. Its edge was exquisitely crafted, with evenly spaced ridges.
The feel of it told Lake that it clearly was not pure silver, yet it possessed a unique luster, like metal kissed by sunlight, giving off a soft, warm glow.
To Lake, this was unimaginable. Every coin he owned or had handled, whether copper, silver, or even the gold coins used by nobles, usually had rough, uneven edges.
Unscrupulous merchants would take well-preserved silver coins and carefully snip a thin layer of metal from their edges with scissors or other sharp tools, then file the edges smooth to make the coins appear intact.
As a result, silver coins that had changed hands many times became lighter, thinner, and smaller than those fresh from the mint, seriously debasing the currency.
Lake's merchant instincts immediately told him what the tiny ridges around this silver dollar were for.
He gently ran his fingers over those ridges, feeling their almost perfect symmetry and regularity. His first thought was... A silver dollar like this was worth at least five Bagnian Silver Coins.
In other words, a packet of nails actually cost five silver coins.
But Lake still considered that