So I reached PoSI status long before becoming Closest To anybody, only because I had been ignoring one of the qualities or quirks relevant to the appearance of a certain broker of Marks. Once I became able, I began fastidiously collecting Marks, though eventually exchanging them for a certain Bazaar treasure.
I have yet to achieve safe passage in the Iron Republic, and am inclined to get these things before and not when I need them.
Finally, I collect First City Coins. I’ve noticed that acquiring a Mark and finding a home for it both expend CtD; although all of the "find a home" rewards are worth substantially more than fencing coins. If I’m not mistaken, however, accounting for the much lower need for CtD, the true difference in profit against CtD is only 20% or so. That said, Marks do seem to outvalue those coins.
Does anybody know why those coins can be acquired in this way, besides the general affiliation of the Numismatrix with currency? I’m inclined to get an Iron Republic pass and then start finding homes for my Marks, but I’m interested in others’ experience with this dynamic.
The coins are needed for one of the Ambitions, and people following that Ambition would want the coins before the game would give them enough of them in the normal run of things. The coins really don’t have any other use (although they can be used to give a friend some cash, they’re really not worth enough to bother).
If you want coins, there are better ways to get them. Consider converting cellars of wine into airag, for example, or just make a point of talking to that maniac who throws coins at you.
[Edit: ‘airag’ was ‘tears of the bazaar’, which would be incorrect’ (thanks, NotaWalrus)] edited by RandomWalker on 10/23/2015
[quote=RandomWalker]The coins are needed for one of the Ambitions, and people following that Ambition would want the coins before the game would give them enough of them in the normal run of things. The coins really don’t have any other use (although they can be used to give a friend some cash, they’re really not worth enough to bother).
If you want coins, there are better ways to get them. Consider converting cellars of wine into tears of the bazaar, for example, or just make a point of talking to that maniac who throws coins at you.[/quote]
Minor Correction, that’s converting cellars into Airag
By my count, once you have all the “can’t get anywhere else” things (consonant violin, …), getting 4 points of CtD [1] is worth only 30 pences or so. Everything can be gotten faster and more reliably elsewhere, if you are PoSI.
Fencing certain coins, in particular, is now … 31 actions for 20 coins (16 ppa).
Sack of coins is 28 actions for 999 pences, which is 35.7 ppa grind (and if you consider opportunity cost of an action to be 150p, then this makes getting 4 cp CtD worth at least 31.4p).
Finding a $#@! home is always very unprofitable, becase you need to go through the whole thing twice (56 actions) to get a very small reward. These are all worth less than 12.5 echoes, so only 22.3 ppa …
By the time you get the opportunity, it’s not worth taking, unless you got the points incidentally (while reducing menaces, for example).
According to the wiki, it’s 5 CP. Is that incorrect?[/quote]
I can confirm it is indeed 5 CP.
It’s 21 actions to get to CtD 14, and then one more action to use it on the Secrets and Spending card, so each cycle is 22 actions.