I doubt NCR would have fallen, but their money could easily become useless. Currency based on gold or other precious resources is very fragile. A sudden influx of gold would cause serious inflation, and the NCR credit or whatever could severely drop in value.

That might be true in modern economies, but considering the fact that NCR isnt a modern economy, its not unthinkable they would be weakened as easily. Rebuilt society after nuclear war wouldnt really be all that open to economic competition.
Who could realistically hope to outmatch NCR in west coast ? There really isnt anyone. NCR would have to most stable economy of them all, it could much more easily back their currency if need arised than smaller settlements.

I think that it should be a mixture of Caps, Casino Chips, and the NCR gold coins.

Anyone trading with the NCR would be expected to use NCR's gold currency. NCR traders and merchant caravans can't possibly go home and hand over a fistful of plastic chips to their boss and say 'I know it's not gold, but they use it out in Nevada'. He'd get fired!

Meanwhile, the Casinos all have their own chips. They control the flow... they know where they go... they know how many they can 'afford' to let go out into the public. The owners and operators of these businesses, in turn, do business with other local merchants... who would therefore accept the currency as legitimate. Casinos would probably ACCEPT all currency... exchange those caps and that gold for chips... they can sell them off or melt 'em down at their own convenience.

Caps could be treated like a slightly outdated currency. After all, they ain't gold... bu they're still made of metal. NCR guys could accept them, but for the most part the NCR would probably be melting the caps down for use in making things like BULLET CASINGS and the like.

[edited for missing parts]

I think we should have Caps and Gold, no Chips

Basically because Caps are already the 'official' universal currency across the wasteland. Isn't that the point? So everyone is using the same currency?

Gold could be also used, but worth more than Caps. And Gold would be the preferred currency inside the city of NV. But Caps are still also used.

Poker Chips just seems like a gimmick.

Also, having a different currency for one area, a different for another and then a different for the city just sounds stupid.

Caps are fine as is.

Caps should have been out of the phases a LONG time ago. Should be something that make much more sense due to their environment, whether its NCR currency or chips.

Actually it makes perfect sense to divide yourself from your foes economy. There is no "universal" or "official" currency in the wasteland, as America has balkanized into at the most, various independant nations with their own competing economic, military, and political agendas; to at the least, countless individual communities who haven't banded together for anything more than basic survival. The U.S. itself dissolved into independant commonwealths long before the bombs dropped, and after, it's just a figment in the imaginations of two dead enclave puppets. As for caps, there's really no logical reasoning behind them being currency in the northeast.

Your poll is broken, there is no option for pipe cleaners.

Enemies use their enemies currency all the time if your enemies money is worth more you are going to use it. look at today, terrorists use american money to buy what they need. China and alot of countries use american money on the world stage. It's called a "currency exchange." Caps can be used but they should not be worth as much as gold coins.
We buy stuff from china because are money is worth more so we can get more. Who evers money has most value would be the dominant player. NCR was the most dominant on the West coast.
NCR was well on their way to rebuiling so their money would be worth more then people that still live in the wasteland, eat one another, raid what they need to live. Caps would be worth nothing. what would be backing up the Cap as a money? the only people I can see still using caps are Slavers and NCR does not use Slaves.

caps

The USA did not "Dissolve" into independant commonwealths before the great war.

The european union did. The commonwealth in fallout 3 is MIT in the commonwealth state of massachusetts. Alot of states are called commonwealth states and that was back during americas founding. Not something that Fallout came up with. In the Fallout universe AMERICA did not fall apart into comonwealth states as you (mikhailian) stated.

people should play fallout 1 and 2 as well as tactics. As well as Learn american history and Fallout American history it will help with the fallout world.

For those not interested in playing Fallout or Fallout 2 I suggest reading through http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline#1697 It's a compilation of all data from FO 1, 2 and 3.

Caps, chips gold. They're all fine with me. Caps for continuity and nostalgia. Chips cuz it's Vegas. Gold cuz it's, well, gold. Company script is fine too, in a company town or it's neighbors. Honestly, because of weightlessness, most of my money has always been tied up in drugs.

I don't mind poker chips. As JES said (petition to refer to JES as Jesse from now ), they are hard to duplicate and since there's a lot of them in Vegas, they're a readily available currency.

However, the question isn't simply "what's cooler", it's a matter of what's appropriate for the setting and what fits. Someone has to back the currency, e.g. a cap's worth of your money translates for a cap's worth of service or goods. The reason I believe poker chips would be a good currency is, well, supply, which can be controlled by whomever has Vegas and its effect - if Vegas was backing a reliable currency on the market, people would be more attracted to the city, since they'd be certain a chip's worth of their money is really worth a chip and not, say, 1/10th of it.

Gold makes sense because thats what fallout 2's politics was all about who controls the gold New Reno or NCR. I'm on the side of the argument of gold only because of fallout 2. I never really understood the value of caps, A barter system is more makes more sense than using caps or gold. If I was thirsty starving and wondered around the wastes and the first person I met I would not want to trade my stuff for useless caps I'd want food water, and a better gun! But anyways the fallout series uses a currency, and I think it should be gold and not caps, unless theres a good story explaining why the currency is the way it is. I really don't consider Van Buraen canon as it was not released. I think fallout:NV is more of a sequel to fallout 2 than fallout 3 is so I still argue gold.

The NCR is like the European Union and probably wants the wastelands, like Europe, to use one currency like the Euro, in this case its currency is gold.

It doesn't seem right to go with gold. I mean, sure, it is shiny and worth alot, but in the long run, you're going to have a hard time with the currency system. I have to say that in my opinion, it's a nice idea, but it won't work out. Caps would be cool as well, but I mean seriously, if you think about a person doing jobs for so long and never spending 1 cap, they would be running around with 50000 Bottlecaps. Where are you going to find so many caps?

Really though, although this is New Vegas, or the Post-Apocalyptic Los Vegas, having CHIPS in the game would be nice as an item, but not as the source of Currency itself. Sure, you can sell some Gaming Chips for 200 Caps. Maybe 500 Caps? But when you think of all the Raiders, don't you think they would have already stormed into all the Casinos and taken all the Chips, Money and Profitable things?


So in this case, you just shouldn't bother with the Currency. Wait for awhile. Once you start seeing more about the game (Character's Backstory, New Vegas' Condition, etc.), you would have a better chance to guess what kind of Currency to use. As of right now, we don't know if New Vegas is protected by Vault Dwellers in T-51b Power Armour. For all we know, the place is held by Raiders and you need to go to a Town on the outskirts and fight your way in there.


Once we all have a better idea on how the Area around New Vegas will look, we should all be able to agree on something. I think that we should wait for gamesas to release new data on the game before coming to wild conclusions like flying cars, and then get Disappointed because the things we were hoping for didn't show up in the game. A good example is one of the other Threads with the Jobs. gamesas won't put every suggestion into the game, so you should wait to see if they start taking suggestions. When/If they do, these threads will be sitting on page 731, and they won't even get looked at.



By the way, these are just MY opinions, so i'm not trying to offend anyone. If I got people angry because they think I should have a life and stop typing "nonsense" or any other insults, i'm sorry for upsetting you. You don't have to listen to my comment, but i'm just trying to save everyone else's time.

Thanks for reading! -Corbin948-

You don't. A person needs to eat, drink, shoot and sleep. Unless he's a robot, he will have to buy water, food, ammo and other services, so he'll never be able to amass a load of money. Not unless he's a major entrepreneur.



Hah, you assume Obsidian will portray Raiders as bloodthirsty savages that nail dead bodies to their walls for fun. Hint: Unlikely.

Not to mention that scavengers would choose USEFUL stuff. Poker chips are useless, in limited supply and impossible to counterfeit post-war.



Again, you assume Caesar's Legion is only a goon faction to shoot. It's not.



So we should just shut up and idly wait for the benevolent corporation to give us a scrap of information, instead of discussing possible ideas for the gameplay and game world?

Hey, hey ... some of this discussion is getting a little heated here. Everyone just take a moment and calm down before posting.

caps where only used in the capital waseland because it hadnt had time to re-develop, from my understanding fallout 2 stated it would be real coinage, however if new vegas aint part of the ncr then it would be nice to see chips, but seeing the city seems pretty developed in the clips i would much rather see more realistic currency, think how many chips would be in las vegas? you would prob need hundreds for 10 caps worth (using fallout 3's cap currency)

i say reset the pole with the option of poker chips

Voted caps

Again, Capital Wasteland had two centuries to redevelop. It didn't even suffer from substantial nuclear bombardment, unlike the West Coast and yet the latter was far more advanced than CW 85 (!) years after the war.

By the way, you do not understand how the currency system works. It isn't "hundreds of chips" for 10 caps worth. Bottle caps by themselves are useless. They are worthless pieces of painted, rimmed scrap. However, what gives them worth (and was strangely absent in CW) is a power that backs them, i.e. sells one chip's worth of goods for one chip. Money can take any form, from coins, through bottle caps to poker chips. What's important is the agreement that it represents some abstract value and is tradeable. If New Vegas backs the chips, then it's a currency. Simple as that.

Besides, poker chips are very realistic form of currency. Casinos have a lot of them, yet their availability is limited, they cannot be easily counterfeited and they come in varying nominals. All pretty much identical to how our modern day currency works.

How about both? Having the setting be in a verge of commercial revolution. Gold increasing value again and caps slowly going out. It could introduce some interesting situations, if certain merchants didn't accept caps anymore and you've not found any gold yet.

poker chips lol...