I posted this question in my PbP, but decided it was important enough to repeat here:

Just how much is a Throne worth? That is, equivalent to what we'd understand today? From the prices in the book and the monthly stipends I would guess around $20, which would mean an Arbiter makes about $1,400/month, while a noble receives about $10,000 ... and even this might be a little low. I ask, of course, because I want an estimate on how much I'm giving out for bribes or even to little kids when I say I drop a Throne or so. And when we intend to drop less than that, how should refer to the amount, as 1/th a Throne? Naturally assuming we carry currency of differing values on us at all times.

Maybe I'm just an economist at heart, but this is something that always seems important to me when establishing a realistic and reliable setting. (naturally prices vary from planet to planet, and such, but that is partially covered in availability)

Also, I'm not about to say I'm traveling with 1,000 Thrones on my person when that equates to 20,000 dollars ... not being a noble, that is a lot of money for most people.

I went looking for prices on items we have now (specifically mess kits, MREs, bullets, and gas masks) and compared them to what's listed in the core rulebook and the Inquisitor's Handbook. If I had to make a guess, the conversion rate is something like $2-$3 USD per Throne.

As far as carrying money with you goes, I don't think it'd be that far a stretch to say that debit cards and the like are still being used, at least on technologically advanced worlds. No idea how they deal with inter-system commerce, though.

-Kirov

My thought on the issue of credit cards has always been that the vast majority of the populace never leaves their world, and very likely within that world, there are banks offering credit/debit cards and the like, providing the world is suitably advanced. In order to apply for something like that you'd have to provide an address and maybe some sort of "resident proof" saying you do indeed live where you say you live. You might also have to provide some sort of collateral. So basically I assume that within a world there are services like credit cards operating, though not everyone would qualify for one.

Interplanetary is a little more difficult. I sort of assume that credit cards issued in the above scenario wouldn't work on an interstellar level. My guess is that transferring money between planets probably works a lot like transferring money across country did in the late 1800s and early 1900s; you wire it to their account (with astropathic messages serving as the wire). I'm sure there are some interstellar escrow firms (more likely noble houses) and the like that deal in this kind of thing.