Aladdin Central Messageboard

AladdinsGenie · Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 3:47 am Post subject:

...would you say the currency in Agrabah is Dinari? I know Dracmas and maybe one other currency has been mentioned, but I think Dinari is safe to say, right?

Salukfan · Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 10:16 pm Post subject:

... I want to say denari, yes. I could be wrong, but I think drachma is used mostly in relation to money that's found outside the city? If that makes any sense.

I know Iago counts drachma in "Riders Redux" and Genie advises Aladdin to not take any wooden drachma...

There's some logic to this statement that fails me/some examples that do not pop to mind, but I feel like denari's the best bet.
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Jafaria · Vizier's Handmaiden Joined: 14 Feb 2006 Posts: 419

Princess of Agrabah · Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 5:53 pm Post subject:

Abis Mal mentioned shekels in the Return of Jafar, too.

Calluna · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 12:52 pm Post subject:

Calluna · Posted: Sat May 29, 2010 1:52 pm Post subject:

Just saw that in "Riders Redux", they mention that the drachmas are gold. I don't remember if they said dinari are as well, but I suspect they are.

"The Spice is Right" - 5 coppers is too cheap to sell magic spice
"The Wind Jackals of Mozenrath" - gold pieces are used in the Monopoly game
"Smolder and Wiser" - Abis Mal offers a 10 gold coin bounty for Aladdin
"Never Say Nefir" - "Magic shoes-6,000 gold pieces"
"Moonlight Madness" - The fortune teller wants to be paid a silver coin, but Aladdin only has a copper one

Remembered another one about shekels, from "The Flawed Couple":
"Here's a shekel, invest in a CLUE!"

AladdinsGenie · Posted: Sat May 29, 2010 4:44 pm Post subject:

I think I kind of figured Drachma was foreign because it reminds me of the old Greek currency, but then wondered how Agrabah decided to use it. For foreign affairs would make sense Laughing

So Dinari is the suspected currency, which is probably gold pieces. Then there's sheckles which is maybe small change, and then silver/cooper coins?

Calluna · Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 1:04 pm Post subject:

Took a quick look at wikipedia and although drachmas are Greek, a lot of middle eastern countries use dirhams, which are basically a translation of drachmas. Maybe that's what they were thinking of? And shekels are Israeli and other older cultures from that area...

I don't know, I got the impression that shekels weren't worth much but looking at the citations there I'm not sure where I got that. Am I missing some references there?
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Princess of Agrabah · Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 11:05 am Post subject:

I think that denari is their main currency since it's mentioned so much. It just occured to me that maybe they do deal with a lot of foreign currency like shekels and drachma because of their location. I kind of like to think of Agrabah as a sort of crossroads..
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Calluna · Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 7:50 am Post subject:

Coincidentally, I was listening to this podcast the other day and they mentioned that in the early years of the caliphate, before they got around to making their own coins, they used old or imported coins from the Byzantine Empire, i.e. Greece. They weren't called drachmas back then, but it makes it sound like our theory isn't too far out there. Smile

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"If only I could believe you. Perhaps I can! After all... you do bear the name of a flower." -- Arbutus

AladdinsGenie · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 2:07 am Post subject:

This is sort of related, sort of not, but there's a Jasmine chapter book coming out (January 25, 2011 >___<), but besides them FINALLY doing something with Aladdin's birthday for a change, they mention coins in the description:

Jasmine: The Missing Coin

Life at the palace is splendid for Princess Jasmine and Prince Aladdin. With Aladdin’s birthday coming up, Jasmine wants to find him the perfect gift, so she sets off on a Magic Carpet ride with Rajah the tiger. She is determined to track down the coveted camel coin Aladdin is missing from his rare-coin collection. It’s smooth sailing until Magic Carpet suddenly loses its power, leaving Jasmine and Rajah stranded in the desert! Will the pair find the coin and make it back to the palace in time for Aladdin’s birthday?

So on top of current currency, there's rare coins - great Laughing

(And hey, is Asha not doing her job? Carpet shouldn't be losing power Laughing

)

Calluna · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:43 am Post subject:

His birthday, eh? I've already got the work-out-the-series-timeline bug again thanks to that other thread, and this is not helping. Laughing

Al doesn't seem like a collector to me, but if he was it would make sense he'd go for coins.

Asha has carpal tunnel, maybe? Laughing

Where do they have the upcoming books listed? Is it on that Disney Digital Books site?
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"If only I could believe you. Perhaps I can! After all... you do bear the name of a flower." -- Arbutus

AladdinsGenie · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 2:07 pm Post subject:

It could be post-KOT. It says Prince Aladdin, but I don't know how much Disney paid attention to what they were saying.

Maybe he picked up the hobby to make sure he gets out of the palace Laughing

. Or Sultan influenced him.

Or she misspelled Khuriya wrong Laughing

I usually check amazon.com if I don't hear about it on LJ somehow. I still haven't found the US release of the book that's on the digital site, but there's a set of Disney Princess chapter books they've been releasing and Jasmine's release date just came out.