Are gold coins universal?

[wingsandsword]

1 gp is 1 gp in my games. I can appreciate the realism of having different coins of different weight/values, but the small bit of atmosphere isn't worth the additional bookkeeping, IMO.

Another voice of agreement to this statement.

98% of the time I don't worry about who made the dang money, about 2% of the time it comes up for flavor or plot.

I like to run the Realms, and there are a few unique coins, like Sembian Steelpence, that may show up. I throw them in on rare occasion for flavor, like in the litany of things found in a dragon's hoard (or as a plot hook, like the PCs find a huge hoarde of money that is nearly worthless where they are, but it's a fortune if they will haul it a few hundred miles to another kingdom), or I might make an offhand mention of a weird mint-mark on some coins they find just as flavor (or again, rarely as a clue or plot device, like a local merchant who happens to give much of his change with coins from the underdark might mean he's been trading with Drow or Duergar).

 

[painandgreed]

IMC, trade in coins is just trading in base metals so gold pieces are about the same everywhere. The 1 coin as a weight standard whcih is 1/50 of a pound was a elven-dwarf standard the has existed for thousands of years before humans ever learned to talk. Much of the gold coinage (including all platinium pieces) are left over from this period and are of dwarven manufacture. This weight system was adopted by the large historical empire from which most current cultures come from so they adopted it also so all new minited coins are of the same design.

Clipping, counter-fitting, and poor qualities of certain coinages do exist, but their effects on trade are abstracted. Buying something takes a certain amount of time as you haggle with the other person on items and price. This is assumed to be about a minute per gold piece value as the buyer looks over the items and the seller looks over the gold and weighs them and chooses the ones he likes best. For a fast sale or purchase on the order of 1 minute per 10 GP, an item will cost 1d6X10% more or less depending on who is restrained for time.

What is moderated by government is the realative value of metals. The 10 for 1 ratio between the various metals was set by historical empire and is still maintained by the main economic empire of the current day. For role playing purposes, there might be some local or temperary variance between these values but not enough to make a living off of currency trade. For example, some people might want to be paid in silver rather than gold (ten times the weight and thus about 30 times volume for the same payment makes it much harder to steal) and trying to buy up enough silver to make the transaction may cause a temporary shortage resulting in in increased value of silver. Money changers in large cities (who also often have other functions such as jeweler) usually charge about 10% to go between metals (or gems) although such services may come for free from others who have large amounts of ready cash (eg nobles) with good Diplomacy checks.

 

[kolikeos]

although i belive it should be so, i don't usually have diffrent currencys in my game because it tends to complicate things unnessecerly.

 

[MonkeyDragon]

Like many others that have responded here, gold is worth the same everywhere, but different countries would mint different-looking coins. I have included different nations' currency in treasure hoards as plot bits before (though it was actually a red herring) and plan to do so again in the future.

I like the idea of having money that's worthless where the pcs are but valuable somehwere else.

 

[werk]

I came up with the idea for a city that presented itself as completely different and separate from it's surroundings, immediately after entering the city you found a moneychanger that would change money into 'local money' (it has an in-game name, but I don't want to mention it) characters could still use their outsider coinage, but everything cost 1.5 listed price. If they change out to the local money, it was 10% discount on everything.

I later applied this to 'nations' or when the party would enter into a large political body different from where they were. If the thayans hate the rascemeni, then they are not going to take raschemeni gold at face value. It adds some bookkeeping, but only when they change nations, which has been once so far in over a year. (easy way to keep wealth in check, too)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I voted option 2, but I want to explain.

Ancient currency based in precious metals was primarily valued by its content of the metal in question, so 2 gold coins of the same weight of gold would be valued as equivalents- barring political realities (a coin bearing the face of a hated enemy might be valueless until recast). I LOVE using concepts like Hacksilber as well.

So, for the most part, my campaigns use a 1gp=1gp rule, but there are exceptions.

However, I have had cultures in my campaign that uses undersized or oversized coinage, or used less than pure (and thus, devalued) metals as currency.

Heck, I've even used sophisticated currency concepts like checks, promissory notes and bank drafts in my campaigns when I have super-sophisticated Merchant houses (like the Florentines & Venetians of the Middle Ages)...but then again, I've had to take courses in the laws of money (Lawyer/MBA). I'll say this: Nothing beats the look on the faces of players who fight their way past numerous foes to open the chest and discover...little pieces of paper.

Of course, once they figure out what those pieces of paper mean, they start smiling again.

 

[EdL]

I use the silver standard, but 1G/S/Cp = 1G/S/Cp. Usually. On rare occasions there will be ancient coins worth more to the right people. I've also hit players with counterfit coins. (Gold painted lead works a treat!) And for really big amounts of money to be portable there are letters of credit (and gems/jewelry).

I've done the whole money changer thing in the past, but it's rarely worth the time. In fact, at one point the players simply melted their coins if they were going anywhere and sold the raw metal as needed.

 

[Wil]

I actually don't play any games that use gold coins at all, but when I was running a game there were different currencies for different countries. It was always most beneficial to players with large sums of money to use either precious gems or bank notes anyway.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Gold is valued by weight, not by mint. A pound of gold is worth the same whether it's in coin, a solid block, or a lump pounded together from scraps. Minting a coin is just a way to provide a fairly reliable measure of how much gold is present without needing to weigh it every time you make a transaction. That said, it may be that different kingdoms have different standards for what consitutes a coin's worth of gold. But why in the name of Waukeen would I ever want to care? A gp is a gp, no matter where it's from.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

For simplicity's sake, a coin is a coin is a coin...

With that being said, I used to be interested in having various forms of currencies for various realms/regions, but it just proves to be a headache. Heck, it's been big enough of a headache for my players whenever I've run Lankhmar (which has iron, bronze, silver, gold, & the ultra-rare diamond-in-amber currencies). Even in the Realms game that I'm gearing up to run here shortly, I'm sure there's various types of coinage, but regardless of the shape/size/purity of the metal/etc., it still basically boils down to the D&D coin value & weight standards (unless noted otherwise).

For a homebrew game idea I intend to use down the line, I'm going to go with a silver standard (with silver taking the place of gold; I'll throw in a new metal base for either the $0.01 or $0.10 value coin). Yet, even then, the values of this new cash will be relatively universal, but mainly due to massive economic pressures from merchants to use a standard system for ease of trade (not to mention ease of counting; what wonderful revolutions come about from the introduction of the concept of zero).