The TN (Traders Note) is the most widely used currency in Egypt. Unlike other MMORPGs, currency is a player made creation, in this case designed by a group of Traders from earlier Ages (Betas). It functions both as cash and as a pricing unit. As cash, banknotes are issued in denominations of 100, 500 and 2000TN. About 1.5million TN worth of notes are in circulation. Egypt is far more a subsistance barter economy than a cash economy however. In that role, the TN functions as a Pricing Unit. Traders use commonly accepted TN prices in deciding how much Canvas to swap for a Large Sapphire for example. This pricing unit function of the TN is perhaps its most common use. Other players have created regional and specialized currencies, often tying their value to that of the TN.
Every TN issued by the Traders Bank is backed by a "basket" of goods, one canvas, iron, copper and potash for each 100 TN worth of notes in circulation. Thus we have over 15,000 each of canvas, iron etc. in our publicly viewable vaults. Notes can be redeemed for their backing value in goods, but only in specific quantities and at limited times as outlined below. The Traders Bank is run by a Board of well respected Egyptians. The daily operation is handled by Hellinar, who had a large hand in the TN's creation.
TN are issued at regular published times and in specified quantities. This is done by way of Contest Booths, which will give us a good audit trail of transactions, and remove the need to find a Banker to make a transactions. (Note that we still encourage you to trade with your local merchants or neighbors as your main source of TN. The notes in circulation are just as good as the freshly minted ones.)
The system for obtaining freshly minted TN notes is as follows.
1) Take 120 baskets (120 Canvas + 120 Potash + 120 Iron + 120 Copper) to the Contest Booths at 1325, 3800. This is in River Plains, south of Liberty Bridge, and south of Bank. About parallel with the School of Thought.
2) Insert the goods into the appropriate Contest Booth. Note the Bank only allows entry of one set of baskets per citizen per week. If this is your first time using this service, also insert 24 boards into the fifth Contest Booth for use in making your delivery chest. We have installed a public Carpentry shop by the Booths, and trees are a few minutes run south.
3) For deposits made before Deposit Deadline, 12,000 TN will be returned to your delivery chest by Delivery Deadline. If this is your first delivery, the Bank will build you a chest near the end of the line, and assign it to you. Please assign it to a guild chest and make it publicly stashable for future transactions.
4) Until further notice, Deposit Deadline will be weekly on Tuesday at noon EST. Delivery Deadline will be Friday at noon EST. The expectation is that most people will drop off their baskets one weekend and pick up their TN the next.
5) Maximum TN release per week will be 180,000TN. This is many times the average weekly take up, so you should get the full 12,000 TN you requested. A system is in place for it this limit is ever exceeded
With the end of the Telling approaching, the Traders Bank of Egypt has introduced an improved system for converting TN notes back to the original backing good. As you have read, every 100TN in notes is covered in our vaults by one deben each of copper, iron, canvas and potash. You may wish to convert notes back to useable goods in the final days, and here is how to do it.
a) Go to the TN Redemption chest line at 1336, 3787. This is in River Plains, south of the UoA. The line is marked by a sculpture with the letters "TN". The nearest Megalopolis is Liberty Bridge (LB loppy).
b) Head south from the sculpture, and choose the first free Bank owned chest. A chest is "free" if it has neither a Ritual Torch nor bank customer’s chest next to it.
c) Insert your TN in the publicly stashable Bank chest. Build your own chest next to it to receive the resulting goods, and make it publicly stashable. A 500 deben chest can hold the results of redeeming up to 12,500 TN, a Large Chest up to 62,500 TN.
d) The next time a Bank staff member is by, they will collect your TN and put the goods in your chest. They will notify you by chat, and mark the chest as processed by planting a Ritual Torch next to it. The bank staff will chat the person shown as having constructed the chest.
e) Remove your goods, and if possible your chest. That will help with the crowding.
Some additional background information. The intention of the Bank has never been to be your prime source of TN. That is the function of you local merchant. While the Bank delivery system is predictable, it is by design rather slow. We hope that this lag will make it preferable to trade with a local merchant or neighbor to obtain TN. The hope is that people will only resort to the Bank when there is a shortage of TN in circulation. Similarly, the Redemption service is set to a rather large amount and a weekly schedule to ensure that trading with your fellow Egyptians is usually the favored option for disposing of surplus TN. For similar reasons, the Bank only provides one location for obtaining or redeeming TN, at the Contest Booths in River Plains.
A second more subtle factor requires us to carefully limit the release of TN. That is the "resource farming" problem. This potential flaw in resource backed currencies was frequently pointed out by Naomi Goldberg, an early critic of the TN. A historical problem with resource back currencies is that people can "get rich" by farming the resource that backs them. That can lead to the condition where everyone is busy collecting the resources to make new money, while the real economy goes down the tubes. This problem could be particularly acute in Egypt, where there a potential massive economies of scale in making the manufactured backing resources for the TN. To date, the tight restrictions on one person or guild obtaining new TN have prevented any such scenario.
The TN was started by a group who all had Trading experience in previous ages, and could see a need for banknotes in their trading operations. Prominent amongst them were Hellinar, Hirokache, Hur-Ra and Narafeti. Several traders contributed much to the original spread of TN, including Aesops, Tamutnefret and Amira. We had some hope initially of switching Egypt to a cash economy, but the conditions that favored a subsistence barter economy proved too strong for that to occur. The TN has however been highly successful in providing both the option of banknotes, and a well recognized pricing unit to Egypt.
Thanks for using the TN.