Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-24225299-20140208235514/@comment-11344160-20140212005410

Look in your inventory. Your money isn't called 'Septims', it's called 'Gold'. You're not always finding Septims, you're simply finding gold coins. People in the game just refer to Imperial currency as Septims, sometimes.

Gold is gold. It doesn't matter whose face is on it, a gold coin at a certain weight is the same value regardless of what dynasty/society/organization created it.