On Gor, the basic unit of currency is the tarsk coin, made of copper or silver. A tarsk bit is the smallest unit of currency. Another unit of currency is the tarn coin, made of copper, silver or gold. Gold tarn disks are also made in double weight. A coin is about 1.5" in diameter and 3/8" thick. There is a tarn or tarsk on one side and the other side has a letter to identify the city of origin. Most cities have their own mints. There is no paper currency on Gor. Business is often conducted by notes and letters of credit.A Gorean/Earth Comparision
1 copper tarsk bit = a penny
10 copper tarsk bits = 1 copper tarsk = a dime
25 copper tarsk bits = 1 copper tarn= a quarter
4 copper tarn = 1 silver tarn = $1.00
10 silver tarns = 1 silver tarsk = $10.00
10 silver tarsks = 1 gold tarn = $100.00
2 gold tarns = 1 doubleweight gold tarn = $200.00
Gorean Currency
Tarsk bit - Basic unit of currency. Depending upon the original value of the coin and how the coin was cut into “bits, it is, naturally, copper, worth from 1/4 to 1/10th of a copper tarsk. The common number of tarsk-bits in a copper tarsk is eight. When copper tarsks are struck, they are often created with deep grooves which enable the owner to snap the coin into smaller pieces. This is typical in the city of Ar.
"One of the guardmen opened her mouth, not gently, and retrieved the coin, a rather large one, a tarsk bit. ten such coins make a copper tarsk. A hundred copper tarsk make a silver tarsk." Explorers of Gor Page 54Copper tarsk - a copper coin that is the whole coin of least value, equivalent to 4 - 10 tarsk bits.
"...In many paga taverns, one may have paga and food, and a girl for the alcove, if one wants for a single copper tarsk. Dancers, to be sure, sometimes cost two." Renegades of Gor, pages 51-52Silver tarsk - a silver coin equivalent to 40 copper tarns, 100 copper tarsks or 800 copper tarsk bits. a coin worth 100 copper tarsks or 40 copper tarn disks.
"Dumbfounded I reached in my pouch and handed her a coin, a silver Tarsk." Assassin of Gor, page 76
"The cost for transporting a free person across teh Laurius was a silver tarsk. The cost for transporting an animal, however, was only a copper tarn disk. I realized, with a start, that was what I would cost." Captive of Gor, page 80Copper tarn disk - copper coin equivalent to 2 and a half copper tarsks or 25 copper tarsk bits.
"Hup wildly thrust a small, stubby, knobby hand into his pouch and hurled a coin, a copper tarn disk, to Kuurus who caught it..." Assassin of Gor, page 13Silver tarn disk - silver coin worth about 10 silver tarsks.
Actually, fifty silver tarn disks was an extremely high price, and indicated the girl was probably of high caste as well as extremely beautiful. An ordinary girl, of low caste, comely but untrained, might, depending on the market, sell for as little as five or as many as thirty tarn disks. Outlaw of Gor, page 193Gold tarn disk - a gold coin equivalent to 10 silver tarks, 400 copper tarns, 1000 copper tarks or 8000 copper tarsk bits. Worth about 100 silver tarn disks.
"'Boy!' cried the Forkbeard. The boy looked at him. The Forkbeard threw him a golden tarn disk. 'Buy a bosk and sacrifice it,' said the Forkbeard. 'Let there be much feasting on the farms of the Inlet of Green Cliffs!'" Marauders of Gor page 150Double-weighted gold tarn disks - twice the weight of a single tarn disk is the highest value coin on Gor.
Without speaking, the man took twenty pieces of gold, tarn disks of Ar, of double weight, and gave them to Kuurus... Assassin of Gor, page 4
"For example, a 'double tarn' is twice the weight of a 'tarn'. It seems there are usually eight tarsk bits in a copper tarsk, and that these are the result of cutting a circular coin in half, and then the halves in half, and then each of these halves in half. An analogy would be cutting the round, flat Gorean loaves of Sa-Tarna bread into eight pieces. There are approximately something like one hundred copper tarsks in a silver tarsk in many cities. Similarly, something like ten silver tarsks would apparently be equivalent, depending on weights, etc., to one gold piece, say, a single 'tarn'. Accordingly on this approach, the equivalencies, very approximately and probably only for certain cities, would be eight tarsk bits to the copper tarsk, one hundred copper tarsks to a silver tarsk, and ten silver tarsks to a gold piece, a single tarn. On this approach, there would be, literally, 8,000 tarsk bits in a single gold piece." Magicians of Gor, page 469
"It was not that I had difficulty in adding and subtracting, of course, but rather that I was not always as knowledgeable as I might be about the relative values of various coins, of numerous cities, which depended on such things as composition and weights, and exchange rates, which might fluctuate considerably. For example, if a city debases its coinage, openly of secretly, perhaps as an economy measure, to increase the amount of money in circulation, or there is a rumor to that effect, this will be reflected in the exchange rates. Many Gorean bankers, not only the fellows sitting on a rug in their booth on a street, their sleen about, but also those in the palaces and fortresses on the Streets of Coins, work with scales. Too, sometimes coins are literally chopped into pieces. This is regularly done with copper tarsks, to produce, usually, the eight tarsk bit equivalent in most cities to the copper tarsk. Every year at the Sadar Fair there is a motion before the bankers, literally, the coin merchants, to introduce a standardization of coinage among the major cities. To date, however, this has not been accomplished." Magicians of Gor, page 411
This page was last modified on the 13th of March 2002