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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MGibster" data-source="post: 9375704" data-attributes="member: 4534">I don't know if it's an easy task trying to pin down the value of gold in the past let alone in a fantasy world.  A standard gold coin in D&D weighs approximately .02 pounds or close to 9 grams.  A gold coin isn't going to be 100% gold, so I'm not sure how much of that 9 grams is actually a gold.  A double eagle $20 gold coin minted in the United States in 1849 weighed about 33 grams of which 90% of was gold.  A British gold guinea was 8.35 grams though I don't know how much of that was actually gold.    In 1194, King Richard's ransom was 150,000 marks which was 25,500 kg of silver.  In D&D terms, that would make 1,275,000 gold pieces a literal king's ransom.  If I'm doing my math right, and it's early so there's a good chance I'm not, that's roughly 141 kilograms of gold or 310 moon landing units.  At the time the ransom was paid, this was two or three times the amount the Crown made annually.  (According to Wikipedia, it was 100,000 pounds of silver but I'm not sure if that's pure silver or how much 150,000 marks would weight.  Most sources I see online say 25,500 kg of silver.)  There have been plenty of D&D articles over the years about coins and how to customize them for your campaign.  I find it's simply much easier to say gold piece to a player rather than giving it a cute name they likely won't remember.  It's also a pain in the rear to try to keep track of different values of gold coins produced by different nations.  Ultimately D&D is a game of high adventure and keeping track of some of this stuff just isn't high adventure.</blockquote>

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