Interresting thing about medieval coins I just read

[reanjr]

A quick fix

I had always assumed that all first-level characters were supplied with a portable hole. How else to explain how easily people can carry around 150 gp, 250 sp, 324 cp, 5 gems worth 50 gp, 2 gems worth 10 gp, 100 feet of rope, camping gear, a week's supply of food and water, etc.?

My players are not allowed to keep more than 10gp of their starting money. If they want to carry more than weapons, rope, and 2 day supply of water, they have to start keeping track of it. And their backpack is very interfering with combat. Not to mention sacks are lost easily. And anyone who regularly carries around that kind of cash finds that he is very popular with the thieve's guild.

My players learn quick that they cannot abuse wealth. Alot of them end up buying property because it's the easiest way to manage all of it.

 

[mmadsen]

The coins from Gotland weighed 0,15 grams while the coins from Östergötland weighed 0,30 grams. If these sizes were true for the continent as well it means that the D&D coin weights are way off if you are interrested in authentic coin sizes.

Those weights seem low to me, about one-tenth what they should be. A paper clip weighs one gram, after all. The first web site that came up when I searched for "coin weight" listed a number of historical coins with weights of two or three grams -- including an old Roman denarius (silver penny).

 

[mmadsen]

I had always assumed that all first-level characters were supplied with a portable hole. How else to explain how easily people can carry around 150 gp, 250 sp, 324 cp, 5 gems worth 50 gp, 2 gems worth 10 gp, 100 feet of rope, camping gear, a week's supply of food and water, etc.?

Those coins and gems would hardly be a burden at all, compared to the rest; 800 coins would only weigh 2 kg or so (at 2.5 g each) -- less than five pounds.

A 100' rope, on the other hand, might weigh 30, 40, or 50 pounds.

And a week's food is about all you can carry. (Historically, a soldier has been expected to march with eight days' rations.)

 

[Whimsical]

Someone posted a spreadsheet here calculating that if D&D coins were all 1/50th of a pound, then a gold piece would be the around the size of a dime, and silver and copper pieces would be around the size of a nickel.

When were were going through a frost giant's lair in a D&D game, he introduced to us the Giant Gold Piece (GGP) which was ten times larger than a D&D gold piece. Popular with Huge+ dragons also, who would need a prehensile tongue or a Mage Hand or an Unseen Servant spell to manipulate those tiny coins.

 

[med stud]

... waits for title of aformentioned book with abaited breath...

Seems like I forgot that ~~

It is "Jarlens sekel" published by Ordfront

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Later on Sweden actually had the biggest coins that have existed. They were made of copper and weighed, if Im not wrong, tens of kilos. This might have to do with the fact that Sweden had lots of copper; 75 % of all cannons in Europe during the 17th century were made of Swedish copper. Maybe the metal was worth less here than in the rest of Europe because of that.

This is incorrect. The largest coins to have existed were made of a special kind of rare limestone, and were used in the Yap islands, in Micronesia. They can weigh up to around 225 kg, and be up to 3.7 metres in diameter. I believe this currency is still considered legal tender on Yap, but most people these days use paper money (often U.S. dollars, because of the tourist trade).

edit, added "diameter"

 

[Turanil]

My players are not allowed to keep more than 10gp of their starting money. If they want to carry more than weapons, rope, and 2 day supply of water, they have to start keeping track of it. And their backpack is very interfering with combat. Not to mention sacks are lost easily. And anyone who regularly carries around that kind of cash finds that he is very popular with the thieve's guild.

My players learn quick that they cannot abuse wealth. Alot of them end up buying property because it's the easiest way to manage all of it.

I will try to remember that for the next campaign I run, hehe...

 

[Dogbrain]

Its the same with US coins (assuming for a second that they were made of actual metal), a penny is copper. There is no gold penny or silver penny (at least not anymore).

The original US coinage system had NO LESS THAN FOUR distinct silver denominations, NO LESS THAN THREE gold denominations and TWO copper denominations. So the US coinage system was NOT like the D&D system. What is truly monumentally amusing is that you made the above claim AFTER I had posted the details of the original US coinage system.

 

[Imperialus]

I think I'm going to base my economic system on the pre 20th century British model.

thank you Victorian Web

There were
20 shillings in £1 - a shilling was often called 'bob', so 'ten bob' was 10/-
12 pennies in1 shilling
240 pennies in £1
Pennies were broken down into other coins:
a farthing (a fourth- thing) was ¼ of a penny
a halfpenny (hay-p'ny) was ½ of a penny
three farthings was ¾ of a penny
Other coins of a value less than 1/- were
a half-groat (2d) 6 x 2d = 1/-
a threepenny bit (3d) made of silver 4 x 3d. = 1/-
a groat (4d) 3 x 4d = 1/-
sixpence (silver) - often called a 'tanner' 2 x 6d = 1/-
Coins of more than 1/- but less than £1 in value were
a two shilling piece (called a florin) 10 x 2/- = £1
a half-crown ( 2/6d) 8 x 2/6d = £1
a crown (5/-) 4 x 5/- = £1
ten shillings (a half-sovereign) 2 x 10/- = £1
a half-guinea (10/6d) 2 x 10/6d = £1/1/-
A £1 coin was called a Sovereign and was made of gold. A paper pound often was called a 'quid'.
Coins of more than £1 were
a guinea (£1/1/-)
a £5 coin

 

[Aaron2]

The original US coinage system had NO LESS THAN FOUR distinct silver denominations, NO LESS THAN THREE gold denominations and TWO copper denominations. So the US coinage system was NOT like the D&D system. What is truly monumentally amusing is that you made the above claim AFTER I had posted the details of the original US coinage system.

Arrrgh. Because I'm talking about -now-. My point was the D&D coinage systems is more similar to current coin systems than historical ones.


Aaron