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EDIT: 24th Feb. 2011: Finally got around to correct the earring thing. As I got a chance to buy a piece of real copper myself some time ago, it became pretty clear that the amount of copper used in the money system was waaaaaaaaaaaay too heavy to be held in a canine ear in the amounts that was originally written here. Now it makes more sense.
Research to the rescue!
(Plus the tiny copper piece looks pretty neat.)
(Also tweaked the levels a bit, now you might actually see something as it's not that pale anymore.)

As our "heroes" are now entering (or have entered. I'm going on page 65 right now) the dog lands, I have done some concept doodling about the subject. The culture of dogs is already living it's copper age, and the precious metal has become quite popular among them as it is rather easy to make into stuff like tools and such. Although the dogs trade lots of stuff to other stuff (like pelts for food etc.) but the availability of copper has introduced the concept of money alongside of the trading.

The value of the coins is determined practically. Two standard sized "half fangs" can be melted and made into a "fang" of standard size, four fangs can be melted together to form a "bite", and four bites can be melted together to form a small knife tool (referred to as "half knife") for cutting, skinning and other household work, and two half knives can be melted together to a bigger knife that is more useful in stuff like tanning (or rather scraping stuff off from the skins) and stuff. The shape of the knives vary more than fangs or bites, as the those are used for trade only (or sometimes as decoration) where as knives are real working tools and thus are shaped in a way that fits the whatever work they're needed in.

As all canines are more or less territorial, dog villages work similar to packs. There are travelers and strays that don't have their own land, so they wear some of their money on their ears where they are clearly visible. Earrings tell the other dogs owning the lands that this is a traveling individual or a group who are just passing through and don't intend to stay, and they can also be used as a ransom ("Hi, I'm just a humble traveler, and I have this much copper on me. If you must attack me, please take the copper instead of my life").

I realized that the drawing on the bottom might be a bit unclear, but the dog on the left is holding a string full of fangs and offering a bite on his other paw to the dog on the right, who is handing a knife to him. Judging by the earrings, the one giving the knife might be a traveling merchant, or possibly even a traveling copper smith, although judging by the small amount of earrings the merchant seems more likely.

World design is fun.

EDIT: I recently got to buy a small piece of real copper myself, and the stuff is waaaaay too heavy to be kept in a dog ear in an amount described here. Half a bite would be the absolute maximum possible to be held in one ear, so imagine the one fang sized jewels here to be half fangs, and the big earring as half bite at most. kthxbye.

Wurr stuff (c) to me stuff

Description
EDIT: 24th Feb. 2011: Finally got around to correct the earring thing. As I got a chance to buy a piece of real copper myself some time ago, it became pretty clear that the amount of copper used in the money system was waaaaaaaaaaaay too heavy to be held in a canine ear in the amounts that was originally written here. Now it makes more sense.
Research to the rescue!
(Plus the tiny copper piece looks pretty neat.)
(Also tweaked the levels a bit, now you might actually see something as it's not that pale anymore.)

As our "heroes" are now entering (or have entered. I'm going on page 65 right now) the dog lands, I have done some concept doodling about the subject. The culture of dogs is already living it's copper age, and the precious metal has become quite popular among them as it is rather easy to make into stuff like tools and such. Although the dogs trade lots of stuff to other stuff (like pelts for food etc.) but the availability of copper has introduced the concept of money alongside of the trading.

The value of the coins is determined practically. Two standard sized "half fangs" can be melted and made into a "fang" of standard size, four fangs can be melted together to form a "bite", and four bites can be melted together to form a small knife tool (referred to as "half knife") for cutting, skinning and other household work, and two half knives can be melted together to a bigger knife that is more useful in stuff like tanning (or rather scraping stuff off from the skins) and stuff. The shape of the knives vary more than fangs or bites, as the those are used for trade only (or sometimes as decoration) where as knives are real working tools and thus are shaped in a way that fits the whatever work they're needed in.

As all canines are more or less territorial, dog villages work similar to packs. There are travelers and strays that don't have their own land, so they wear some of their money on their ears where they are clearly visible. Earrings tell the other dogs owning the lands that this is a traveling individual or a group who are just passing through and don't intend to stay, and they can also be used as a ransom ("Hi, I'm just a humble traveler, and I have this much copper on me. If you must attack me, please take the copper instead of my life").

I realized that the drawing on the bottom might be a bit unclear, but the dog on the left is holding a string full of fangs and offering a bite on his other paw to the dog on the right, who is handing a knife to him. Judging by the earrings, the one giving the knife might be a traveling merchant, or possibly even a traveling copper smith, although judging by the small amount of earrings the merchant seems more likely.

World design is fun.

EDIT: I recently got to buy a small piece of real copper myself, and the stuff is waaaaay too heavy to be kept in a dog ear in an amount described here. Half a bite would be the absolute maximum possible to be held in one ear, so imagine the one fang sized jewels here to be half fangs, and the big earring as half bite at most. kthxbye.

Wurr stuff (c) to me stuff