D&D 5E silver standard

[MG.0]

Current estimates of silver reserves are about 530,000 tonnes, while gold is about 55,000 tonnes.

Wikipedia suggests the total is about triple your estimate, but who cares?

The coins are WAY too big (measuring with the heaviest in both current and historic circulation), and are undervalued by a lot.

As I said before, there are comparable coins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_Double_Eagle
That would come in at about the size of your typical dragon hoard coin (if there is such a thing) and was 90% pure gold at about 13 coins to the pound. That's pretty freaking big.

Ironically, taken as 1 gold piece, that coin wouldn't have been enough to cover half the price of a pickax during the California gold rush 85 years before it was minted. A pair of boots would have cost 5gp. http://michaellamarr.com/grprices.html


You are trying to align a fantasy world's currency system to mining production and historical prices on Earth. What's the point? It's fantasy. I'm pretty sure the number of owlbears in D&D is unrealistically high compared to medieval europe too...

 

[Hand of Evil]

You make some excellent points there. Perhaps I will go with the option of just converting all (or most) gp prices into sp prices (so 10 gp = 100 gp). I'd already sort of started doing that with my last campaign, where I kept telling them they found x gp in mixed coins and such.

it is very easy to build a chart for this:

• 25% - House hold items: silverware, candle sticks, statues, paintings, furniture, etc.
• 15% - Jewels
• 10% - CP
• 10% - SP
• 10% - EP
• 10% - GP
• 05% - PP
• 20% - Magical items

 

[MG.0]

One thing I'm not sure has been mentioned is multiple currencies.

It's more work for the DM, but having a modern silver based currency with small coins and an ancient empire's much larger coins that are found in older treasure troves gives a nice atmosphere. You have to work out a conversion rate and track them separately so it's more bookkeeping, but can make treasure seem more exotic. Having characters try to spend ancient coins could be fun roleplaying opportunities as well, drawing unwanted attention to the party, etc.

 

[MoonSong]

Talents were a unit of weight measurement not of currency.

There is hardly any gold - per google it would all fit into a 20m cube (or maybe a 50m cube)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21969100

It's only valuable because it is rare - there is not much difference between a precious metal standard & a c20 promissory note one or a c21 virtual one as the metal is not inherently very useful.

The metal is not useful, but beautiful, lasts forevver without oxidizing or tarnishing, and it is shiny! It has some inherent value that makes it desireable by humans -except for ancient Mayans that didn't quite liked it despite it being as rare as anywhere else, but they were weirdos that couldn't bother to finish their calendar-. Rarity has nothing to do with it, unlike platinum that is only valuable for its rarity gold is actually worth a lot even if we had plenty of it , the price in faith currency does have to do with rarity, but supply and demand are the keys to that actual price. There is a reason crazy survivalists hoard the metal along with useful stuff.

 

[chriton227]

The metal is not useful, but beautiful, lasts forevver without oxidizing or tarnishing, and it is shiny! It has some inherent value that makes it desireable by humans -except for ancient Mayans that didn't quite liked it despite it being as rare as anywhere else, but they were weirdos that couldn't bother to finish their calendar-. Rarity has nothing to do with it, unlike platinum that is only valuable for its rarity gold is actually worth a lot even if we had plenty of it , the price in faith currency does have to do with rarity, but supply and demand are the keys to that actual price. There is a reason crazy survivalists hoard the metal along with useful stuff.

Platinum actually has a fair number of uses giving it value beyond just being rare. Most cars on the road have some amount of platinum in them, sometimes in the spark plug electrodes and very frequently as a catalyst in the catalytic converter to clean up the emissions. There are medical uses for some platinum compounds. Platinum has been used as a catalyst for around two centuries at this point. Only about 10% of gold production is used for non-currency/non-jewelry purposes, but somewhere north of 50% of platinum is used for non-currency/non-jewelry purposes.

 

[aramis erak]

The metal is not useful, but beautiful, lasts forevver without oxidizing or tarnishing, and it is shiny! It has some inherent value that makes it desireable by humans -except for ancient Mayans that didn't quite liked it despite it being as rare as anywhere else, but they were weirdos that couldn't bother to finish their calendar-. Rarity has nothing to do with it, unlike platinum that is only valuable for its rarity gold is actually worth a lot even if we had plenty of it , the price in faith currency does have to do with rarity, but supply and demand are the keys to that actual price. There is a reason crazy survivalists hoard the metal along with useful stuff.

Gold is EXTREMELY useful in electronics. As an electroconductor, it's pretty damned good, and the non-corroding nature makes it ideal for point contacts exposed to atmosphere.

Platinum is used in Catalytic Converters, spark plug tips, and a few other odd bits.

Industrial use is the #1 use for gold.... in very tiny amounts.

 

[MoonSong]

Platinum actually has a fair number of uses giving it value beyond just being rare. Most cars on the road have some amount of platinum in them, sometimes in the spark plug electrodes and very frequently as a catalyst in the catalytic converter to clean up the emissions. There are medical uses for some platinum compounds. Platinum has been used as a catalyst for around two centuries at this point. Only about 10% of gold production is used for non-currency/non-jewelry purposes, but somewhere north of 50% of platinum is used for non-currency/non-jewelry purposes.

Gold is EXTREMELY useful in electronics. As an electroconductor, it's pretty damned good, and the non-corroding nature makes it ideal for point contacts exposed to atmosphere.

Platinum is used in Catalytic Converters, spark plug tips, and a few other odd bits.

Industrial use is the #1 use for gold.... in very tiny amounts.

Duh, way to miss the point, of course gold and platinum are useful... in our modern industrialized world. Before they discovered industrial uses for platinum and the market economy sent everybody into the "rare=valuable" mindset, platinum wasn't worth a dime, it was less than trash. why else there would be lots of the metal in the middle of the ocean? Europeans dumped it there because it was not worth the problems they had to transport it. Gold on the other hand isn't that useful, but has always been desired by people. Without an industrial society platinum is worthless, rare or not (notice how all of these uses for platinum are dirty?).

Edit: and I suddenyl had a deja vu

 

[Dieter Dietzen]

I considered switching to a silver standard after reading through (and deciding I liked) the LotFP rules. Ultimately I decided it was too much work, for little payoff. The same amount of "realism" (which I've never considered important in my FANTASY games anyway), can be achieved if you simply assume that gold is much more common than it was in the real world, and in fact IS the "silver" of its time, with platinum replacing gold as far as rarity and value. The fact that this idea is supported in the literature and lore, makes it a no-brainer in my book.

 

[Dorian_Grey]

Why go silver? Go for broke and switch to a barter economy! I'm only partially kidding. I've always wanted to play a campaign where the characters had their class abilities but those were secondary to their skills/backgrounds. So if you're a fighter and a farmer, your primary concern is raising crops or tending animals and the adventures might focus around cattle theft and people trying to poison your plants. If you need a new suit of armor, you make a deal with the blacksmith to trade eggs for a shield, helmet, and breastplate.

Then a goblin raid hits the town, and the townspeople gather together to organize a response. So you and your neighbors (the other players) get together and attack the goblins. When you do so you find out that they have some stolen cattle, some furniture, and even some raw materials (lumber and ore). So you haul it all back to town and now are wealthy! One of the cattle is even marked as the baron's own. So you escort the cow back to the baron, who rewards you with 10 silver coins. Now you're super wealthy!

It could be a ton of fun. Maybe not most people's idea of fun, but I'd find it fun!

 

[CapnZapp]

Every so often I come across someone who says they've switched to a silver standard for their D&D economy instead of the default gold standard. For some reason, the idea appeals to me, although I'm not entirely sure why, because I don't know what all it entails. Would someone please be so kind as to enlighten me? Thanks.

The reason is simply if you don't care for all the gold the world is implied to contain, if you use the equipment and treasure tables as listed by the DMG.

Simply say that any gold piece is instead a silver piece and the world becomes MUCH more believable from a historical perspective.

Suddenly everybody starts doing business in silver, just like in real life. High level adventures still deal in gold (and platinum) of course, but that is now the exception rather than the rule.

What it entails? It couldn't be simpler. Any amount in gold is changed to be silver instead.

A Longsword costs 15 silver pieces. A crowbar 2 sp. If a module tells you the Goblin chief has 30 gold, you tell the players he has 30 silver. A "Fine gold chain set with a fire opal" listed by the DMG at 2500 gp is worth 250 gold (or 2500 silver). A diamond valuable enough for a Raise Dead spell is worth 500 silver, not gold.

And so on et cetera.

Simply convert gold into silver on the fly and ask your players to do the same. It will soon become second nature.