Are gold coins universal?

[Coredump]

**EDIT**:I was not clear on the poll, and I can't figure out how to edit the choices. The second one should be "gold coins are valued the same, but are minted differently, so you often have to convert to the local coinage."


I was having a discussion on another board, and this topic came up. We were wondering what the 'norm' was. So, is it safe to assume that all gold coins are acceptable in your world? Or do you need to 'convert' them to local currency.

 

[mythusmage]

I pretty much decided to go with silver coins. Gold currency is reserved for big transactions. That said, sometimes a silver piece will buy more in one place than it will in others. But that's ordinary price variation.

Where currency exchange is concerned, it depends. England enforces it, France does not. While the Romans practice precious metal purchasing. You sell your coins for their metal content, getting paid in Roman coins.

By and large Roman coins tend to have higher value than coins from other nations. The exceptions being Persian and English coins in their respective lands of origin. Thanks to some horrid fiduciary decisions French coins have a bad reputation. Though nowhere near as bad as coinage from some of the Hunnish kingdoms in North America.

Your best bet when making purchases is the pay in Roman coin, followed by Persian or English. Then the native coin. When you have to exchange your currency for the local coin it's a good idea to look for a reliable money changer. Beware of anybody who charges an extremely low fee.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

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.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Different coins, different numeric bases (decimal / octal etc.), different materials, some not coins at all, different names. . . etc.

It takes a little while to write (type) up, but IMO the fairly minimal effort pays off.

 

[Nac_Mac_Feegle]

In the D&D world, there isnt really currency, nothing like the American Dollar or the English pound.

Remember that in current world economics, your currency strength is based on a lot of things, one of which being, how much gold that country owns

We dont trrade in gold at this moment, we trade in paper, printed with a value, based on Gold reservers of our countries.

When your living in a fantasy setting such as D&D, your dealing in the RAW power of wealth, gold, and as such, it has no real currency, gold is a rare metal, therefore it commands more product.

Now countries may use a press or some such to put an emblem on a coin (smelting it) but with ancient treeaure hordes etc, most people arent going to care what picture is on the coin, rather they will care more about the gold content in the coin iteself.

I would imagine copper and silver to be so common place that it will just be smelted into round coins with no design, but gold may well have some emblem etc. Though whetehr a trader cares your using a gold coin from another country or not is a different matter.

You might be carrying gold wiht the emblem of a nation currently at war wiht the country you are in, making your coin worthless if you dont want to be arrested.

Also, local factors will dictate costs, in a desert campaign, expect water to be far more valuable than in moderate climes, maybe costing up to 10 times the book value for a waterskin.

Feegle Out

 

[the Jester]

Some places it's universal, some places it's not- if you go far enough away from the "main region" of the campaign.

So, though the poll answer says "often" exchanging coins, and my game involves "occasionally" exhcanging coins, that's my vote.

 

[Jdvn1]

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.

Seconded.

 

[Keith Robinson]

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.

Agreed.

Gold is gold. You can mark it differently or cut it into different shapes, but it's value remains the same wherever. Having a gold peice have different values in different places just isn't worth the extra work it brings IMO.

 

[The Edge]

I wasn't sure what to vote. IMC its pretty much gold is gold and worth the same all over. However there are a few areas of my game world that coins will become worthless or need to be exchanged in some way. But overall theres no need to swap.

 

[arscott]

Wealth score all the way baby.

Lets me do interesting things with coins flavor-wise, but avoids the mechanical hassle that would normally go along with such changes.