Long, long ago, lost in the mists of history there was great ancient nation called Fanos ruled by a famous king named Pa'Hammas the IX. As a young, ambitious man and the fifth in line for the throne, chroniclers tells us that he personally led a army that defeated the feared Gnostos Wizards. The Gnostos derived their power and learnings from the powerful genie Bu Tchannis Larrt, and Pa'Hammas lusted after this power, believing (rightly) that by possessing that genie he could thereby gain the throne.

Pa'Hammas first demanded of the genie that it cause the death of his father and brothers and any children they might have, such that he may rise to be the one and only king, but to do it in a manner which appeared no different from natural cause and that would appear in no way suspicious that they should all die at once. Dutifully, the genie invoked a plague on the nation that slew a third of the population, including the king and his family. Thus rose Pa'Hammas to a broken and traumatized nation.

As a result of this, Pa'Hammas vowed to never allow himself to be so tricked, and sealed the genie away in a vault beneath his palace, so no one else could benefit from it, and that the world would be protected from the genie's evil by Pa'Hammas's beneficial wisdom. Instead, Pa'Hammas cleverly employed the genie as a threat: Whenever he felt the need to have his way with another nation, he would make mention of the genie and the ways he could employ it should they resist his will. In this way, over time Pa'Hammas slowly gained obedience and control over a vast empire.

His enemies, not wishing for the plagues or to face that massive armies that they believed Pa'Hammas could bring about, instead employed craftier techniques. They would build a large monument in their city and extol it publically. Pa'Hammas, jealous and intoxicated by the power he imagined himself having, funded the construction of a monument twice the size and twice the magificence of the one described to him. It truly was a marvel of craftsmanship. The next year another of his subjugated cities did the same, this time with a temple. Again and again over the years Pa'Hammas was led into making increasingly lavish and more extravagant displays of his power. Meanwhile, his wealth was ever diminishing, as his ministers were forced to deplete his government's money supply, and invoke ever higher and higher taxes.

At the suggestion of one of his ministers, he minted a run of gold coins extremely debased with silver, which was met by scorn and ridicule by his subjects, and were largely refused as payment. Facing bankruptcy, worried at the increased militancy of his provinces (who were growing accustomed and increasingly dismissive of his threats), and needing to undertake a public work of a scale to dwarf anything his competitors could produce, Pa'Hammas slipped down to place a carefully thought out request to the genie.

His words are unknown, but scholars believe his wish went something like this: "Strike a coin an inch in diameter weighing no more than a typical coin, ten million in number, each a thousand times the value of a likewise amount silver, safe from counterfeiting or clipping, that shall bear on its surface a perfect likeness of my face. Place all of the coins here in yonder vault. Further, I and my nation should come of absolutely no harm due to your actions in fulfilling this wish." It is surmised he must have appended a list of legal verbage that are lost to us in time; that he must have employed a lawyer to do this is of no doubt.

Dutifully, the genie complied, producing a coin made from a metal previously unknown, of a rarity a thousand times less than silver, magically ensorcelled to be unbreakable and untarnishable. On the surface of the coin was added a layer of pure gold crafted into the exact likeness of king Pa'Hammas' profile. All of the coins were carefully stacked in the nearby vault as requested. Shown the coin, the king was so pleased that he promised to release the genie in a year's time if the coin should prove as valuable as it appeared. "Surely, in a year's time everyone will hold the value of the coin as high as you ask, and every day thereafter you shall prize each coin as much as you prize your own beautiful face," promised the genie.

Pleased, the king showed the coin to his ministers, who were immediately skeptical of the value of the metal. "What is it?" they wondered. The beauty and perfection of the metal entranced and stirred the ministers. When held in the warmth of one's palm, the coin emitted a faint but pleasant glow. The perfection of its cut, the crisp and sharp golden image of the king, and the artful scrollwork of its back revealed this coin to truly be a work of art well worth the 1000 pieces of silver that the king declared as its value.

Immediately Pa'Hammas announced plans for a construction effort the likes had never been seen before, and remains an unrivaled achievement to this day. A vast palace was built, with statury, public temples, and rich gardens overflowing the lands around a beautifully crystal clear lake. Just one coin was enough to pay the entire salary of a highly skilled workman for the duration of the project.

A year to the day the coin was issued, with the coins in the coffers of noblemen, lords, bankers, and other men of wealth, the king visited the genie, and bowing low, released him from his curse. "It is testamount to my wisdom and care for the law, that our bargain has held as strongly as I had intended. And I pride myself and my word. A year ago I gave the promise that today you shall be freed, and thus it shall be so." Released, the genie bowed low. "May you never be without vast amounts of wealth." The genie pledged the king as he left.

Greatly pleased with himself, and prideful of his wisdom, the king threw himself into the pile of coins in his vault, laying amongst them and revelling in the wealth. It so happened that in gazing at one of the coins he noticed a slight bald spot atop the head in the portrait. "What's this? This wasn't here before!?" He looked at another coin. The same. And another, and yet another. They were all balding! "What trickery is this?" he wondered as he stormed to his office to view other coins. All of them - even the one in his display case by his bedside, were so tarnished. Incensed, he demanded that mirrors be brought so that he might compare his own head with that of the coin.

The ministers and physicians clucked and deliberated. Indeed there was no question: the king was becoming prematurely bald. Pa'Hammas was outraged. "I am the richest man in the entire world. I shall not be afflicted with the baldness of an old man. Find me a cure! And NO MAGIC!"

So a vast program was initiated to find a cure for baldness. After a time, an herbal cure was found that stimulated hair growth. Unfortunately, the king found himself extremely allergic to it; the next day and for a week thereafter, his face was covered in horrid, painful hives. And of course, the coins reflected this change.

When finally recovered from this affliction, the king found his face scarred with pockmarks, and while he could cover his own face with makeup and salves, the image on the coins did not so lie.

Thus the king began a massive initiative to buy up all of the coins. Initially his wish was to cover the face on each coin with extra gold, thereby hiding his blemishes just the same as he hid them on his own face. Yet the cost of doing this soon revealed itself to be prohibitive.

He tried melting the coin. It would not melt. He tried scraping the face off of the surface. It could not be marred. He tried producing similar coins of a natural metal, desperate to dilute the supply of the too-honest coins. But counterfeits were too easily spotted.

The stress and madness caused by this tragedy put the lines of age on his face, thereby showing every nobleman, priest, or banker at every transaction, his growing weakness and dispair.

Desperate, he passed laws declaring the coinage void, threatening confiscation and imprisonment to any who defied him by not turning over their coins. Figuring that on his death that the coins would be once again a valid currency, people chose to secret away their coins in desolate locales, and claiming thievery or moneychangers to have unburdened themselves of the coin.

The king himself, fearing his ministers might burgle the vaults, or that on his death that his successor might release the coins again, sent the coins forth to be buried on deserted islands, thrown into the sea, or cast deep into caverns where only foul beasts could witness his growing debilitations of age.

Consumed by the distractions of his public loss of youth, the king failed to attend to his public loss of wealth. He had all the money in the world, still, yet no longer could he pay his soldiers nor continue bribing his enemies into submission. Knowledge of his release of the genie had somehow become public, and soon the provinces were in rebellion. The ministers, seeing no good coming from an overthrow of the government nor the death of their emperor, convinced him to undertake a personal accounting of the coins, to verify that all had been recovered. While in truth only a fifth of the coins had been recovered, the ministers brought back the same coins in different chests, so that the king couldn't know they were not the same.

Yet the ministers were too late; before they could raise the nation up from poverty, the provinces rose in arms, now ready to reap the harvest of economics they had long ago sown. Within a year the empire was a shadow of itself. The king died a broken man, a victim of his own shortcomings.

It was realized at his death, that to allow him to be buried in the traditional manner would not be wise; no one wished to have the rotting visage of an old king on the most valuable coin of the realm. Thus the king was honorably cremated, his ashes strewn.

Thus to this day, the face of the coin known as the Grand Hassan bears nothing but a hard, rough, sandy surface, and is still in use by lords and bankers for their most valuable monetary transactions. In fact, every so often a long lost cache of coins is dug up or uncovered in some secret hiding place.

And in a twist of irony, this coin is prized by coin thieves because the rough surface makes a perfect file to shave layers of gold and silver off of other coins.