Ok, so ive been thinking. The major influx of citizens is supposed to be made up of people from "the wilderness" looking for protection from an almighty channeler. These people are survivors of a Cataclysm that destroyed civilization as they knew it. Most likely, multiple generations have passed, and for all the little ones, the stories their elders tell them of great kingdoms are all but fairy tales.
So why would these people give a crap about a coin? The bartering system would be far more plausible as a way of survival, at least in the beginning. I would like to see it done so that you would have to convince your people to use the gold you find throughout the land as currency, thus actually creating an economy. Otherwise, gold is just being created from nothing and to me that seems very silly.
I mean think about it, if a nuclear war broke out tomorrow, we all would hope that some of the worlds population would manage to survive. Slowly, small groups of people would band together to protect one another (thus creating something similar to the tribes of old). As these groups reproduced and started to grow, the children would know nothing about their parents lives except the stories they were told of tv's and world wide webs, which most likely would seem fictional and a sort of fairy tale to them. When different groups started to find one another, a form of bartering would most likely surface. "My people have excess deer meat, can we trade for some of those tarps to catch clean rain water?" or whatever is needed, you get my point. These people, these survivors, could care less about a U.S dollar bill for it wouldn't matter, and people would see it for what it actually is: paper. I can't see a point when money would actually come back into use, because to me, it seems unnecessary with such a small group of people.
So I think that Elemental, especially with the angle at which its coming from with its story, should set a new precedent for strategy games, and make the economy (and development of) actually mean something. Gold, in the beginning, would be worthless compared to such things as lumber and food. Yet, after a while, when you find old gold pieces scattered throughout the land and start circulating it through your civilization it would gain value and worth.
Comments? Suggestions? 
I thought you'd all like to see my stick village doodle from when i was brainstorming all this 
