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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CruelSummerLord" data-source="post: 3630211" data-attributes="member: 48692">I would draw the line at, say, 5,000 to 10,000 gold pieces when it comes to coin.  After that, it's generally accepted that gems or jewelry, art objects, or some other more tangible items are used for payments between individuals, although governments, merchants and organizations can often use larger amounts of coin when paying for extremely valuable goods, or a very large quantity.  In my version of things, only an idiot, or someone truly desperate, would sell a permanent magic item; when +1 hand axes with no special qualities are cherished treasures, when being 6th and 7th level marks you out as significant, when the only people who can make permanent or even charged items have to be at least 13th level and 18th level if they're making something permanent; when a 17th-level fighter can still be wielding the very same non-magical, non-masterwork sword he got as a 1st-level neophyte and be wearing the very same non-magical, non-masterwork chain mail he bought at 4th level, without ever getting to wield any magical weapons or armor or even see them used against him, the sale of magic items and their force in the economy is generally not a factor.  I'm one of those people who would insist on gaming in 3E rules using a 1E mentality.  Yes, I know that Quasqueton has clearly demonstrated that Gary Gygax said one thing and did another, but what he said in the 1E DMG about the rarity of magic items is one of the things I have taken up as my own, and it is to my mind one of the essential parts of the "1E mentality" so many people go on about.  As such, most people pay using copper and silver coins, and fifty gold pieces is a king's ransom.  This includes PCs-if they bring back a lot of gold, and use it to pay things like taxes, scutage fees to avoid military service, sage's fees, hiring mercenaries, buying magical potions, debts of honor, tribute to the king, or whatever else, they still use copper and silver to pay stabling and inn fees, buy food in the market, purchase firewood and coal, pay blacksmiths to refurbish their weapons, and all the other mundane stuff that the game doesn't cover.  Let's not forget that money is as often taken out of the economy as often as it's brought in.  For every adventuring band that cleans out a dungeon and comes back with a rich haul, there are four more who meet any number of horrible deaths, with all their money and magic taken out of the mainstream human economy.  Goblins, bandits, giants, and more can all win just as often as they lose, and gain that treasure to begin with.  Then there are all the stupid but vicious monsters-they might not have any use for the treasure, but they take it out of the economy anyway when they kill and eat its owners.  Most often the PCs are the lucky ones-how many nameless "previous victims" die at the hands of the monsters to give the PCs some sort of tangible reward?  Metagame-wise, the treasure is there to reward the PCs, but that money and magic had to come from somewhere; for the adventurers to be able to bring it back and introduce that treasure into the economy, some poor sap had to have been killed and lost that treasure to begin with.  As such, barring any truly oerth-shaking event, the money supply actually stays fairly stable.</blockquote>

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