Of space pirates and their coin

Taz'aran platinum decat

The Taz'aran Imperium platinum decat is a large doubloon-like coin, exactly 3 inches in diameter and 0.3 inches thick. The serial or minting number of each batch of coins is stamped on the decat's edge. Also included is the name of the planet on which it was minted. It is a 90 platinum/10 gold alloy, minted by way of gravity projectors. The metals used are purified in orbital or deep space ore refineries, which ensures all impurities are removed. Cheap knockoffs are immediately found since nearly all of these are cast out of impure metals and in molds.

The face is reserved for Taz'ara's current ruler, in this case Empress Narissa. Otherwise known as Her Enthroned Excellence or The Serene Empress, she is depicted as a veiled lady wearing an elaborate tiara with five jewels, or it is her oval floating throne instead.

One can know if the decat was minted in the core worlds or the outer sphere of the Taz'aran Imperium, depending on which image is minted on the decat's face. Throne for the core worlds, and Narissa's unimaginably well hidden visage, for the outer sphere.

The tails of the decat is either a stylized depiction of Taz'ara itself, with her twelve gigantic continents, five oceans, outer rings, and six moons. The outer sphere colonies instead mint their decats with the symbol of the Taz'aran Imperial Navy; a destroyer, wide, tall, and bristling with turreted cannon. The vessel is of venerable design, one that is still used by the navy. It is an elongated trapezoid; its wider part is the destroyer's nose, and near the edges are where the nozzles of her two spinal particle-beam projectors are located. Engines and folded boarding arms are located on the trapezoid’s shorter part, which is the destroyer’s aft section.

Taz'aran decats are widely used as a convertible currency across the vast Fringe Space expanse. The space pirates who control most of this expanse, the Clanners, they are perhaps the most decat rich individuals. In some cases, they would even go so far and hawk rare decat batches to the Taz'aran Imperial mint, for exorbitant prices. To pay their crews and divide loot in appropriate shares, it is not uncommon for Clanners to cut the decat with their beam pistols in seven, mostly equal in size wedges. Those are called “azats” and are only used by Clanners or the Cartels of Fringe Space as coinage since the Imperium will not accept broken decats.

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