Of Orbs and Lords Coin

I designed a coin for my story in photoshop and here's the result. The obverse depicts Lord Immahyr, who becomes king of Eptannia during the story. Eptannia is the name of the fictional country in which my story takes place and the 2008 date refers to the year I designed the coin. On the reverse, the towers of Jarronal are depicted, as Jarronal is an important location in the story. I chose the gold color, because gold is valuble and because gold coins are the main form of money used in the story. Wow, it's amazing what can be done with Photoshop!

Excellent! Very impressive!

Shelagh wrote:

Excellent! Very impressive!

Thank you! I'm glad you were impressed!

what's the current exchange rate?

In the story, a gold coin is defined as being worth one week's wages for a typical Eptannian workman. Silver coins are also used, but their value isn't mentioned in Of Orbs and Lords. However, I've determined their value to be that of one day's wages for a typical Eptannian workman. To convert that to U.S. dollars, I would say the Eptannian gold coin is worth about $300 and the silver coin about $50. Although I don't think I mentioned them in the story, copper coins would also be used for smaller transactions. I've decided that the Eptannian copper coin is worth about one hour's wages for the typical Eptannian workman or about $5 in U.S. currency. Though not mentioned, a coin made of a cheap metal like iron or lead worth about 25 cents in U.S. currency would be needed as well for the smallest of transactions.

Cool work Gordon!

How impressive, Gordon. Looks like you're pretty handy with the design tools.

I agree, they look good enough to spend. Losing one of the gold ones (worth $300) would be quite a blow.

If you flip the image horizontally before you add the lettering, it faces the right way.

Impressive. With the continue weakening of the dollar, perhaps your new coins will have as much value. Make sure they fit the vending machines.

Fantastic job. Impressive, indeed.

Is it based on the price of gold or something else, something strangely exotic?

It's value is based on the value of gold in the fictional country of Eptannia.

I made the picture of the towers of Jarronal using some paper cones and photoshop. It's supose to look like you're looking at the towers through a porthole. I added the slight blur to the picture to hide the fact that the towers are really cones made from computer printer paper and scotch tape. I have an even better version, but I think it's too big to upload (over 2 megabytes).

I shrank the file size. Here's the better picture of the towers.

Doing your own graphics must be not only fun but you can be sure they are what you want. (I have had illustrations for short stories that were nicely done but not even close to what I saw.) I don't know the first thing about graphics software though I have started to research. You mentioned Photoshop (which seems expensive!) but obviously does a great job. I have looked into Corel Painter 4 Essentials with the Bamboo Pen tablet. I would like to do my own bookcovers, bookmarks, design logos, and also do illustrations -- working from photos and freehand drawings. The only graphics I've used are the Paint and Photo that came with my Dell/XP. Can't do alot with them. At least I can't. Any words of experience would be welcome. Thanks.

I like to do all the work myself. I edit, proofread, illustrate, and obviously write my own stories. The version of Photoshop I have is Photoshop Elements 6. I got it at Wal-Mart and if I remember correctly, it cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $80. I think it's well worth the investment.

Oh, and here's another coin I did in Photoshop.

Thanks for your input. Not sure what Photoshop I was seeing online but it was way more than $80. Next time I'm at Best Buy or Walmart I'll see what they have.

Gordon it's great to know what version you are using -- I have looked many times at the full version at $700 and hum and haw and my sister always talks me out of it (she has the same version you do and does all kinds of cool scrapbooking things with it).
I love the coin designs you are doing - they look fantastic, and like a lot of fun. I also think that its brilliant to develop products that support the concept of your books!

Hi Pam,
Great to have even more input. I think we were browsing the same $700 product which is probably way more than I'd need. When I designed my book's cover I used the old-fashioned drawing with pencil and ink and actual cutting and pasting, then scanned and added the lettering. I didn't expect the publisher to use my as-it-was design, but they did. Just cleaned up some fuzzy edges for me. It works but after I've seen what members are doing here with graphics software (bookcovers, bookmarks, web designs, coins and towers), I wonder what I might have done. I am looking forward to finding out in time for my next publishing projects.

You were probably looking at one of the professional versions of Photoshop. I think there's an even more expensive version that runs around $900 or $1000, Which is greater than the cost of my new laptop! Photoshop Elements is usually fairly affordable. I use version 6, but you can probably get older versions form places like E-Bay for even less than $80, but I wouldn't recomend going with anything too old.

Here I am at age 9.



And here I am as a blue haired 9 year old thanks to the miracle known as the color replacement brush.

When I went to research the Photoshop 6, I came across what may be exactly what I need for my art projects; a Bamboo Pen Tablet bundle which includes photo and illustration software. And fairly affordable. All of your info really helped.
The blue hair, kewl. Rather elvish. Or anime.