As should be expected of any city of standing, Waterdeep mints its own coins. All taxes, fines, and guild fees must be paid either in Waterdavian coin or the currency of any member settlement of the Lords' Alliance. Though no law requires you to pay for goods or services in Waterdavian coin, the drudgery of weighing foreign currency and checking its purity prompts many retailers and operators of swift-exchange businesses-including drays and hire-coaches-not to accept anything but coins minted in Waterdeep.

Though you can trade your coinage for Waterdeep currency with anyone willing to do so, the exchequers at the Palace of Waterdeep make exchanges with no associated fee. The queue there can be quite long, necessitating that you make an appointment-often a day or more in advance. For a swifter transaction, I recommend any member of the Guild of Trusted Pewterers and Casters, or of the Jewelers' Guild. Both have the most reliable scales and abide by guild-wide rates of exchange.

Be sure to exchange taols and harbor moons before leaving the city, as their value greatly diminishes elsewhere!

Here are images of the city's coins, which aren't to scale.

• Nib - Copper coin about the size of a thumbnail (1 nib = 1 common copper coin)
• Shard - Silver coin, slightly smaller than the nib (1 shard = 10 nibs)
• Taol - Brass coin, about two inches square with a hole large enough for a nib to fit in (1 taol = 200 nibs)
• Dragon - Gold coin, half again as large as a nib (1 dragon = 100 nibs)
• Sun - Platinum coin, twice as large as a nib (1 sun = 1,000 nibs)
• Harbor Moon - Platinum crescent inset with electrum, about three inches long with a hole large enough for a nib to fit in (1 harbor moon = 5,000 nibs)