Coin of the Realm

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Coin of the Realm
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Treasure - Reserve
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Adventures
Illustrator(s)	Ryan Laukat
Card text
Put this on your Tavern mat. After you finish playing an Action card, you may call this, for +2 Actions.

Coin of the Realm is a Treasure–Reserve card from Adventures. While only a Copper on play, it can be called after playing an Action to give +2 Actions, making it a village. Normally this means having to wait until the turn after playing it to call it, but if played by Black Market or Storyteller, it can be used as a village on that same turn.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• This is a Treasure worth .
• You play it in your Buy phase, like other Treasures.
• When you play it, it goes on your Tavern mat. It produces that turn but is no longer in play. It stays on the mat until you call it.
• You can call it after resolving playing an Action card, for +2 Actions (which will let you play further Action cards).
• Move the Coin of the Realm into play when you call it, but it does not make that turn, it just gives +2 Actions.
• It is discarded that turn with your other cards in play.

Other Rules clarifications

• Coin of the Realm can be called after a Crown played during your Buy phase, a Werewolf played during your Night phase, or a Caravan Guard played on someone else's turn, though getting +2 Actions in those situations usually has no effect.
• If you play this with Black Market, you may immediately call it when you're done buying from the Black Market deck.

Strategy

Original article from werothegreat

It's a Treasure! It's a Village! It's Coin of the Realm!

This card is definitely a planning-ahead Village - if you've overloaded on terminals and suddenly think "crap, I need a Village", you'd be better off buying a Port. This is certainly not the strongest card, and can be rather slow (like most Reserves), but can be quite powerful if used correctly.

What does it do?

It's a Copper that can be called later for +2 Actions. It cannot (usually) be called on the same turn it's played, so it kind of feels like a Duration card, something like a lopsided Fishing Village. Unlike a Duration, though, it waits on the Tavern mat until you really need it. It's also one of the cheapest villages, sharing a cost with Hamlet; the only cheaper village is Necropolis, and that's not exactly a card you can spam.

How do I use it?

In general, Coin of the Realm's Reserve nature means that you'll never "waste" it as a Village - playing Village, then Smithy, only to draw a bunch of Treasures and Victory cards is not exactly optimal. That Village has now been used for the shuffle, and so you've in a sense lost your ability to support one of the terminals in your deck until you reshuffle, which is why it can often be good to get a couple more Villages than your deck actually needs. If that were a Coin of the Realm instead, you'd be able to hold onto it until you actually had a collision in your hand. With CotR on your Tavern mat, you can play terminal draw with impunity, knowing you can support up to two more Actions if you draw any, and still being perfectly happy if you don't. Without terminal draw, you can almost overload on terminals, since a single CotR can handle three terminals colliding in your hand - in this case, again, unlike with normal Villages, there's no chance of "wasting" CotR if you only draw one terminal.

To get into more detail, let's look at two cases: boards without other villages, and boards with them.

Coin of the Realm as the only village

Here, CotR should be one of your earliest purchases. Be willing to spend on it, though perhaps not at the expense of an opening Silver, unless you're aiming for terminals instead of 's. You want CotRs on your Tavern mat as soon as possible, so that you can start calling them as soon as you start getting terminal collisions.

It's at this point that we need to address CotR's major advantage, and major disadvantage:

Good: CotR gives 1 Action more than most other Villages, since it doesn't require an Action to get its effect. Therefore two CotRs can support 5 terminals, whereas 2 Villages can only support 3.

Bad: Due to its slowness, in order to get any sort of reliability out of CotR, you need to stagger them, like Durations, which means you need to buy twice as many of them. So, to support 5 terminals, you really should be buying 4 (which is how many Villages you'd be buying anyway).

So for an engine that draws itself every turn, you'll need to buy just as many CotRs as you'd buy Villages, so that advantage is nixed, but there are still two things in the card's favor: 1) You don't need to play next turn's CotR's until the end of this turn, and 2) It's still cheaper than most other Villages. For a terminal-heavy deck that won't necessarily draw itself every turn, perhaps due to lack of trashing, you might not need to get as many CotRs; collision will happen less often, and you'll usually be able to reserve CotR before another one happens.

That first point is important, so let me reiterate - since CotRs are played at the end of your turn, and then hang out on your mat for your next turn, there's no uncertainty where you hope you draw your Village and terminal draw together; you're sure that you'll be able to play whatever terminals come up in your hand.

All in all, is an engine possible with CotR as the only Village? Yes, but it can be a little finicky at times.

Coin of the Realm with other Villages

In these cases, CotR is often ignorable. Getting is not usually a happy turn, and you'd often rather pick up a drawing Action Village. In these cases, if you get CotR at all, it will be as a supplement, something you pick up with an extra buy to help smooth out your engine. When paired with other Villages, CotR kind of feels like Cartographer: not something that's really going to be essential to your strategy, but it certainly has a net positive effect on your deck if you happen to pick one up. It can also add some reliability to your deck - as mentioned before, CotR doesn't have to worry about being drawn with your terminal draw card, as it's already there, on your mat, waiting to be called. In these cases, picking up one or two CotRs can help ensure that your engine fires every turn.

What does it work well with?

CotR likes +Buy. It's a perfect "sure, why not" purchase when you have left to spend, and certainly helps your deck more than Pearl Diver. The best version of this is terminal draw +Buy - Council Room, Margrave, Ranger - that way your CotRs can help support their play, and then you can pick up another draw card along with another CotR, or whatever other payload you feel like snagging.

Of course, we can't not mention the two cards that play Treasures during your Action phase - Black Market and Storyteller. While I wouldn't go so far as to call either of these a "combo" with CotR, the synergy is certainly strong here. Being able to play and call CotR on the same turn completely gets rid of the slowness disadvantage, and almost doubles the terminal capacity of your deck.

Conclusion

A solid card, both in its role and its price point, though it shines more if it doesn't have any Village competition.

Synergies

• Storyteller and Black Market, which can play it during your Action phase

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		When you play this, put it on your Tavern mat. Directly after resolving an Action, you may call this, for +2 Actions.	Adventures	April 2015
		When you play this, put it on your Tavern mat. Directly after you finish playing an Action card, you may call this, for +2 Actions.	Adventures (2017 printing)	August 2017
		Put this on your Tavern mat. After you play an Action card, you may call this, for +2 Actions.	Adventures (2021 printing)

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Koninklijke munt (lit. royal coin)
Finnish	Kuninkaallinen raha (lit. royal coin)
French	Monnaie Royale (lit. royal coin)			Quand vous jouez cette carte, placez-la sur votre plateau Taverne. Immédiatement après avoir fini de jouer une carte Action, vous pouvez recourir à cette carte pour +2 Actions.
German	Königliche Münzen (lit. royal coins)			Wenn du diese Karte ausspielst, lege sie auf dein Wirtshaustableau. Sofort nachdem du eine Aktionskarte ausgeführt hast, darfst du diese Karte von deinem Tableau aufrufen. Wenn du das tust: +2 Aktionen	(2015)
German	Königliche Münzen (lit. royal coins)			Lege diese Karte auf dein Wirtshaustableau. Nachdem du eine Aktionskarte gespielt hast, darfst du diese Karte für +2 Aktionen aufrufen.	(Nachdruck 2021)
Japanese	法貨 (pron. hōka)			これをあなたの酒場マットの上ロ置く アクションカード1枚の使用を解決した直後、+2 アクションを得るためにこれを呼び出してもよい。
Polish	Moneta obiegowa				Although Polish version is not released, this card is referred to in the Polish version of Empires rulebook
Russian	Королевская Монета (pron. korolyevskaya monyeta, lit. royal coin)

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Coin of the Realm is a weird one. When you play it it makes and goes on your mat. On some future turn, you call it to get to play more Actions. So it's a village that you can't (normally) use the turn you play it. And it's a village that just waits until you need it. You draw your two Heroes together, play one, call the Coin, and play the other one. You can also use Hero to gain a Coin. Will the other Reserve cards all be combos with Hero? *checks…* No. Not all of them.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Adventures Previews #2 - Guide, Duplicate, Coin of the Realm

Secret History

One of the first Reserve cards was the classic concept of a Village that's there for you when you really need it. At first it was an Action. The tracking was kind of tricky, and at the same time it was tricky getting it to a good place relative to Village and Fishing Village. Loquacious playtester Matthew Engel suggested making it a treasure. It's nicely distinct from other villages, and the tracking is not bad - while you do need to remember if you put it on the mat this turn in your Buy phase, that's just for the amount of time between putting it down and buying a card. This also makes it a strange exotic card; it's a village that doesn't work the turn you play it (barring certain combos).

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Adventures

Donald X.'s opinion

Coin of the Realm is very cool. It's not always the best village on the table; it's not great to have to draw it as a Copper. But it's a fantastic village when you just need a little villaging and aren't drawing your deck. And of course it's always nice to have that insurance, even with other villages doing your main villaging. It was an Action originally, and LF suggested making it a Treasure. That means it's never* dead, which is also cool.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Let's Discuss Adventures Cards: Coin of the Realm

Similarity to Villagers

Possibly what you're looking for is: I wasn't going to let Coin of the Realm stop me from doing a good mechanic. If Reserve cards had come in a later expansion than Villagers, Coin of the Realm wouldn't have been so compelling to do, in the same way that there isn't a Reserve card that's like Coffers tokens.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Renaissance Previews #2: Acting Troupe, Sculptor, Recruiter