“The Dollars of Dagon” appears in The Unspeakable Oath 19, now available in PDF and in print with free PDF download.
Written by Bobby Derie, © 2011. Illustrated by Dennis Detwiller, © 2011.
Before the transition to paper currency unbacked by gold or silver, the United States of America relied primarily on precious metal coins. Mints were established in such places as Dahlonega, Georgia and Charlotte, North Carolina to capitalize on the gold production in those regions.
Innsmouth, Massachusetts, the old New England trading town, was never authorized as an official mint, since it lacked a nearby gold mine. Still, the ready source of bullion from the Innsmouth refinery attracted the attention of the Treasury Department, and in 1860 the Treasury made a test issue at the Marsh refinery using Innsmouth gold. The proofs were transported back to Washington, D.C., but formal approval was delayed and, with the outbreak of the Civil War, finally abandoned.
The Innsmouth dollars and the dies used to stamp the coins were ordered destroyed. However, rumors have circulated since the 1880s that at least some of the Innsmouth proofs still exist. The dies—broken and unusable—were recovered from the wreckage of a naval vessel in 1893 and displayed in the front hall of the Esoteric Order of Dagon in Innsmouth.
Physical Description
The Innsmouth Issue proofs consisted of two each of the following U.S. coins: gold quarter eagles ($2.50), half eagles ($5), eagles ($10), and double eagles ($20). Each coin is dated 1860, with a small “I” mint mark. The coins are 0.900 gold; the remaining 0.100 is made up of various platinum group metals, and the resultant coins are heavier than gold coins of similar denominations.
Besides the composition and mint-marks, the coins contain a few errors. The normal six-pointed stars have been replaced with seven-pointed stars, and the coins lack the motto “In God We Trust.”
Powers
Each coin possesses a slight, seemingly “magnetic” attraction to other samples of Innsmouth gold. While it’s not magnetism in the truest sense, the coins tend to stick weakly together, and a coin suspended on a string pulls slightly toward the nearest concentration of Innsmouth gold. Depending on the investigator’s location, this could be another Innsmouth dollar or even a Deep One city!
The dollars of Dagon are especially suitable for enchantments such as Contact Deep One, Curse of the Stone, and Enchant Stone Tablet, and can be used in place of the usual stone tablets when casting those spells.
Using the Dollars of Dagon
These coins are relatively easy to work into any campaign that uses American currency. They could show up in a character’s change for a purchase or as part of a numismatics collection. Here are a few other adventure hooks:Research into the coins’ strange history led a noted collector to shadow-haunted Innsmouth, where he disappeared. The investigators are hired to find him—and the coins.
The Arkham Historical Society put the coins on exhibition. Obed Marsh, still angry at the Treasury, ordered the Deep Ones to recover them. Now that the coins have come to light, the children of Dagon are active again in the Miskatonic River.
Noted gambler Herbert Whateley-Marsh of Boston loses a bet and pays with his prize Innsmouth double eagle. Unbeknownst to the winner, the coin had been subject to an Enchant Stone Tablet spell and drives its possessor to insanity and death unless the investigators intervene.
Counterfeiters have stolen the dies and wish to strike new dollars with them. All they need now is Innsmouth gold. . . .
Click here to order TUO 19!