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I'm not sure I agree with the (hopefully over-simplified) statement of the actual bills being worthless - unless the people have faith in them. While faith plays a huge part in the balance and power a specific currency has, there are other factors involved.
And one I have seen all to often in most games, is that people do not need money - because they don't need the goods and services the money CAN buy. Let's face it, especially in hack 'n slash games, most characters can do most things. Most characters end up being able to use a weapon well, cast some spells, transport themselves all over, find food (or sometimes don't need any at all), heal themselves without medicine or can find a cure anywhere, etc. etc.
Realistically, if you or I could live our lives without money like our characters: make our own food without needing to buy ingredients, defend ourselves effectively, didn't need property to build a home and could just sleep where ever, be cured of most or all aliments by sleeping one "night", transport our selves with a word, etc. we wouldn't need money either.
I think to create a basic, effective economy in a game, you must have:
- an environment where every character requires some amount of goods and services that they cannot produce for themselves and must purchase
- a limited amount of currency. IE: money can't just be made all the time for no apparent reason. Players need to spend the currency they get to have currency lieing around to find
- NPC's must also be required to "spend" money
There are many ways to implement these factors, but I agree with Drealoth, you will need to do it gradually because your game is already up and running. And inform the players what will be happening ahead of time, so they know what will be required of them.
And I also agree that you will need to consider the newbies in any changes you make. After all, they will need to survive and be able to thrive just like the older players.
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