I still don't see the big profit in making counterfeit septims when I can smelt the gold ore into ingots, make jewelry, enchant it out the wazoo and then sell it for a great big pile of shiny shiny real ones. I guess if you're not doing any enchanting it makes a difference but even unenchanted gold jewelry goes for a pretty decent price if you find the right gemstones while you are mining all that iron ore (or off looting various dungeons).

That's what I do- make jewelry and enchant it to sell. It's how my mages finance their education early in the game. Those spell tomes cost a lot. As someone posted, later in the game it gets tedious so I just don't do it anymore. If you're roleplaying a smith, it can also be counterproductive since a lot of armor needs iron ingots.

I thought that it changed the ore into the next tier's ingot, but the way you say it is a much better transmute spell, wish it was that way...


This makes sense too, you can't find it on (any) merchants, the only location is Steamcrag camp.


It requires an official stamp to do such a thing, thats why there are official seals of office/country and such.
I like this, instead of a piece of seemingly random loot, it's a reward for a large magical quest.

It's always tedious until I get leveled up in Enchanting. My characters always smith, and they always enchant. So at some point I make a full set of smithing apparel - apron, shoes, necklace, ring, gloves, circlet.

Now obviously not all of those items will take a Fortify Smithing enchantment, however the ones that don't will take one or more of the enchantments that Fortify Alteration, Magicka, Magicka Regen, or Alt + Mag Regen. Factor in the Dual Effect enchanting perk, and bingo! I can stand there and transmute ore all day long like a boss. I may have to down a Restore Magicka potion after casting the spell numerous times, but it's a far cry from doing it once and then standing there waiting 30-60 seconds for my Magicka to recharge.

There is more than one copy in the game, at least two because there's also one at Halted Stream Camp. That's where I always find it.

My Transmute spell can also transmute iron ingots all the way to gold ingots (when dualcasting and with Alteration Dualcasting perk), but I rarely use it, unless I find some iron/silver stuff while exploring and I really need funds.

I want the one that turns wood into gold.

I use transmute to grind up my alteration skill. I buy/mine all the iron/silver ore I can get, and then grind away.

Well it is an unrefined idea but counterfeit coins could be a quest linked to a thieves guild offshoot with a town guard or soldier linked so you could play the quest out either good or bad.
Transmute allows you to use your magic ability to turn iron into silver and silver to gold, do add a few new NPCs with the counterfeiting set up and introduce your character as the man with the means to make there iron mine more profitable. It would work better as a quest for characters that don't use smithing, and since not all NPCs can smith fine jewelry I assume it would make since that a few would want a way to make quick cash.
Again just an idea to make the transmute spell more interesting.