GM04, Copper Puli of Dothraki Chieftain Khal Drogo – SP116.

This unusual piece is an example of “wire coinage”… that is… coins which are struck with primitive tools along a length of heavy wire, and worn as armbands or bracelets, but may also be cut apart as needed for use as currency.

The copper “puli” are the smallest denomination coins. (Puli is the plural of pul) They are almost always left in full strings of twelve or cut into pairs. Singles are seldom seen. They are also issued in silver, which are called Dengi (Dengi is the plural of Denga). They were made for the Khalasar of Khal Drogo as appeasement and used by him and his clan as adornment.

Khal Drogo is of course the leader of the Khalasar when we meet him in George R.R. Martin’s books. The Khalasar is a horde of fierce nomadic tribesmen. The design of these coins is actually modeled closely on old Russian real-world wire denga and shows a marauding horseman on one side, with text on the other. The difference is that those old ones were almost always cut apart, and we are leaving ours together as much as possible.

They are sold as connected pairs. They are made into strings of eleven to thirteen pieces… most often twelve, and cut apart into pairs with the occasional single or triplet. Full strings that are unusually well centered and spaced are saved to bend into armbands. The original idea is that such wire coins could be struck using small portable dies, on captured metals, making them suitable for use by a nomadic raiding khalasar. But… it is said that the Dothraki do not believe in money and so the existence of these coins has proved a mystery. But it is now felt by most authorities that these “coins” were the product of an unnamed trader and tinker traveling about the area. Tired of being raided all the time, he sought to adopt the Dothraki “way” of giving gifts, offering armbands with Drogo's image on them to the khal erstwhile seeking to gain the business of mending their tack. In effect he was introducing them to the concept of money and seeking to corrupt them in a sly fashion.

This features a horseman with sword on one side, and the inscription KHAL DROGO DOTHRAKI on reverse. Khal Drogo is, of course, Daenerys Targaryen's husband in the books. It is undated (like most ancient coins) but is thought to have been struck at the tinker's wagon some few years before the 300th year after Aegon's conquest united the seven kingdoms of Westeros. The Dothraki themselves typically use these only as full strings, preferring the silver over the copper. But they eventually drift via gift-giving into the general sedentary population and there the armbands are usually cut up into singles and pairs. There is no established monetary parity vis-a-vis Westerosi coinage, but typically fourty or so of these copper puli are equivalent to one silver Denga.

The weight and condition of these may vary somewhat from piece to piece. Traders and merchants widely accept them at about their weight/metal value against any other coin, there are enough of them in circulation that they are not considered rare.

• Two coins, connected
• Pure copper
• ~3 grammes per pair
• Denominated one “Pul”
• Struck on heavy wire
• Dothraki horseman on obverse
• text only on reverse
• struck on primitive portable tooling
• available only as connected pairs
• Undated: circa ~AC 300
• Front & back shown, one connected coin pair supplied.

This fantasy collectable coinage is officially licensed through George R.R. Martin.