Forum:Favorite currency

What currency do you prefer in Fallout?

Personally, I like gold currency, as in Fallout 2, the most. It seems to make most sense to me in a world where there is no strong law enforcement to prevent forgery. Gold coinage would also be a good way of local rulers and business magnates to set themselves apart -- an ounce of gold is an ounce of gold, but a raider-king who has a good portrait of his face on his own coins sets himself apart from the others in terms of prestige and authority. Bottlecaps seem like they'd be too easy to forge to me, given the abundance of junk metal and the relatively simple technology required to make a bottlecap. Idhan 06:12, June 22, 2011 (UTC)

I agree with Idhan. Precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, even copper are still valuable in the Fallout world, perhaps even more so. While the idea of bottle caps as a currency was inovative, it really isn't viable or practicle in a real sense. What is the bottle cap based on? Does it present real value, ie; it's weight in gold or some other precious commodity? Also, since there is no longer any manufacturing on the industrial scale that was prevelent in the prewar society, bottle caps would be a finite currency.

I think Caeser's Legion actually has a real currency that you can bank on, literally. Silver coinage has been around for at least 5000 years and as Idhan said, if a warlord/king/tough guy can get his likeness stamped into the coin, so much the better to dispaly his power and wealth by declaring through the image on the coin, "I'm worth something!". I thionk pre war paper money would be utterly worthless, aside from starting fires or being used to wipe your arse. Precious stones and gems would have intrinsic value as they are small, easily concealed and still are tradable. Pre war jewelry would also be worth looking at for a Fallout currency. Gold rings, brooches, silver necklaces, earrings etc would all be tradable I think or if not, worth melting down and reforging into coins.

I think the writers of Fallout need to move away from caps. There is also the fact that the 4th wall of immersion gets broken when you start having thousands of caps on your character. I mean its utterly ridiculous as although each cap has almost no weight, in the thousands though, they'd weigh a lot and have volume and mass. Your character would, in reality, be dragging a massive sack filled with noisey caps. Far better to have some small diamonds, gems and silvers of gold.

The barter economy is still the best notion in Fallout. Other things that would have real value would be Fission batteries, energy weapon ammunition, small arms ammo, medical supplies, high tech salvage, books, and pre war clothing. Captain Taipan 07:26, June 22, 2011 (UTC) @Taipan

I blame bethesda, as I usually do :P 5t3v0 07:56, June 22, 2011 (UTC)
 * Bethesda didn't come up with the idea of Caps for currency in the Fallout world. It was the guys who originally created FO that devised this currency. Blame them if you wish although I don't think it helps much. [shrug] Captain Taipan 09:08, June 22, 2011 (UTC)

I can understand your logic in arguing against caps in the fallout universe, but to me they represent the tongue in cheek humor of the Fallout series. I agree it gets a little unlikely when you consider that your character must be carrying hundreds of pounds of bottle caps by the end of the game, but is it really anymore believable to be carrying and equivalent amount of gold or silver or for that matter is it realistic to carry six rifles, a minigun and a missile launcher? Besides, the bottle caps are a satire representing the way in which the leftover scraps of the old world are grossly more valuable than they should be in the wasteland. It's also satirical of mankind's need for currency no matter how valueless is truly is. They work on so many levels. I think the bottle caps are a wonderful element of the fallout universe and I would be sad to see them go. Zac hemker 07:55, June 23, 2011 (UTC)


 * Good point about the satirical concept of the caps Zac, I'd not considered that at all. On reflection it makes perfect sense that the developers/writers were making a subtle jibe regarding humanitys need for money. Bottle caps are just as worthless in reality as is the paper/polymer that modern currency is made up of. I think the idea of cpas was done not so the players could amass vast numbers of the dam things but to provide "change" when bartering with goods with merchants, ie; a laser rifle for 2 stim packs and 20 caps change.


 * I agree that caps are an integeral part of FO however I think the dev's are slowly introducing other forms of currency like Casesers coins and NCR dollars to show that other factions and societies have come up with their own methods of economic exchange. Capitalism, Capitalism Never Changes! :)

Captain Taipan 01:06, June 24, 2011 (UTC)

Granted, that as the story of Fallout progresses, and the societies that make up the world advance, they will begin to develop their own currencies and economic systems, but that's expected in any real world scenario. What I'm concerned about is fallout becoming too real to the point that it loses its slightly off beat charm. The game is so compelling because it is comprised of numerous anachronisms that somehow work together counter intuitively to generate a strange and wonderful place full adventure without ever coming off as cliche and overwrought. I know I'm going off on a tangent about bottle caps, but I see them as symbolic of the entire fallout universe. To put it simply, without bottle caps, it just isn't fallout anymore. Zac hemker 08:36, June 24, 2011 (UTC)


 * Zac, the bottlecaps aren't meant to be satirical. You show a very shallow understanding of trade and its importance to human civilization. Any currency is going to be chosen arbitrarily, because it's a tool that's supposed to make trading easier and help estabilish economical ties, not because it's fun to do so. Bottle caps were chosen originally by the Hub merchants because they were hard to forge (a forged bottlecap is not going to look like a pre-War one) and small enough to store and carry. They backed them with their water - each bottle cap traded for a set amount of water in the Hub. Furthermore, I doubt you have heard of something called "letter of credit". You aren't necessarily carrying hundreds of pounds of bottle caps by the end of the game (ignore game mechanics for a moment), you might as well be carrying a handful of, say, Gun Runner or Water Merchant backed letters of credit, listing the amount of bottle caps to be paid out on demand or exchanged for goods.
 * Furthermore, "Fallout without bottle caps isn't Fallout"? What, Fallout 2 isn't a Fallout game now? http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/0/08/Personal_Sig_Image.gif Tagaziel (call!) 09:10, June 24, 2011 (UTC)


 * I don't see why you think they'd be hard to forge. Crown cork bottlecaps were created in 1892 -- and they weren't fancy pieces of 1892 tech either: they were designed for the purpose of being made cheaply and discarded. In New Vegas, counterfeit caps can be made in a small shack. The caps have no value, but they appear to be identical, and it's really not clear why every merchant from Ada Straus to Max knows that you're really giving them 95 old caps and 5 new counterfeit caps, and not 100 old caps. Making a bottle cap that looks authentic is hard, sure, but making a bullet that fits precisely in a chamber is hard too (I'd say harder). Wastelanders make fully functional bullets. (Although I don't quite buy Miles when he accepts the Vault Dweller's implication that he's making and using black powder: that would require cleaning the barrel after every shot or something. I suspect Miles just decided not to correct the Vault Dweller because he figured, why give away my trade secrets for making smokeless powder when some overconfident dude thinks he already knows them (and is way off)?) Naturally, if bottlecaps are hard enough to make that making a bottlecap costs as much or more than the currency value of a bottlecap, then forgery would be unprofitable even if it's within the technical abilities of wastelanders, but I have a suspicion that even making 4000 caps would be easier than making, oh, a T-45d suit. Idhan 17:14, June 24, 2011 (UTC)

Of course you're right that Fallout 2 didn't have bottle caps. I guess It has been a while since I played it. Never the less, I stand by my argument. As for the statement of my understanding of the importance of trade, you can't make such a broad claim on a person's knowledge based on one paragraph on a public wiki page. Besides, last I knew we were still talking about a video game and not the real world. A video game written by human beings with a sense of humor who categorically do include satirical elements into their work. Bottle Caps are important to the series and I for one do not want to see them go. Honestly what other games do you know of that actually have a unique currency? Every other game out there either uses cash or gold. Why should fallout conform to that standard just because caps are not the most believable form of money? Radiation doesn't turn people into ghouls and there is no such thing as a mutagenic retrovirus. Why do you feel that Fallout needs to be made more believable? That essentially defeats the purpose of the game altogether. I don't mean to be confrontational, I'm merely expressing my honest view points on a topic in the vault's forum. If my arguments are offensive to anyone I sincerely apologize.Zac hemker 16:02, June 24, 2011 (UTC)
 * The entire point of my post is that bottle caps are cash. They aren't any more or any less believeable as a currency than paper money or gold coins. Every currency is backed by someone. Make no mistake, I like bottle caps. I was simply pointing out that the assumption that bottle caps are somehow different from other currencies is baseless. http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/0/08/Personal_Sig_Image.gif Tagaziel (call!) 16:12, June 24, 2011 (UTC)

I respect your opinion, but I still disagree. I do believe that the bottle caps are satirical and intended as a humorous jibe at the materialism and greed of modern society. You are entitled to believe that it is more simplistic than that if you wish, but that is still only your opinion. Unless the developers can specifically refute any of the things that I have expressed, I see no harm in reading more meaning into them. Especially when it fits so well. Zac hemker 03:28, June 27, 2011 (UTC)

nice arguments on both sides. i have to say that i like bottle caps the best, whether or not they can be easily forged. i would assume that after 200 or so years most respectable merchants would be able to tell the difference by weight, markings and if it looks newer. but i suppose 200 yrs is alot of time to learn to forge a believable cap. introducing other currency is a good idea. money is money no matter what form it takes, it just changes value from place to place. maybe some caps can have special markings to increase or decrease its value so that you can carry a smaller amount of caps but have the same value? JimmyDreznaut017


 * That's a good point. Like modern coins having different denominations, maybe Nuka Cola and Sunset Sarsaparilla could be like dollars and 50 cent pieces. Why not throw in beer caps as pennies? The only issue here is how realistic the devs would want it to be. By that I mean that after 200 years you could expect the paint to be pretty well worn off all of the bottle caps in existence which would render the differences near nonexistent. However, as this is a videogame in which we are asked to suspend disbelief, we could assume for that sake alone that they would still be marked clearly enough to be distinguishable from one another. I like that idea. Zac hemker 13:16, July 10, 2011 (UTC)