“Once you have their money, you never give it back.”

Rom recites the first Rule of Acquisition after Quark rebukes him for returning a customer’s misplaced money intact in “The Nagus.” Honesty becomes a business failure under Quark’s comic value system. In this design, the long gold strokes of money hold the larger collection of coins and form a wall against one returning coin below. Pale phrases, a dark field and a gray curved route make the unequal exchange visible.