The silver standard?

[Hypersmurf]

I vote for Gygaxian Greyhawk currency.

One iron drab.
Five drabs make a brass bit.
Ten bits make a bronze zee.
Five zees make a copper common.
Four commons make a silver noble.
Five nobles make an electrum lucky.
Ten luckies make a gold orb.
One orb and one lucky make a platinum plate - the equivalent of fifty-five thousand drabs.

-Hyp.

 

[Pheonix0114]

My reason for wanting to use some other standard is for my own personal verisimilitude. Currently all adventurers are rich, at level 1. Their left over money after buying all of their equipment is enough to feed a family of commoners for weeks, which I just don't like.

My current house rule made all adventuring gear cost 10% of what it normally does, while also reducing starting wealth by that amount. Along with this I leave other prices the same as they were previously.

 

[Estlor]

In reality, a gold piece would be worth about $1000.

Bah. That's nonsense. How am I supposed to suspend disbelief in a world where gold is ONLY $1,000 USD an ounce?

(Although now I'm picturing a setting in which a couple of dwarves run a chain of markets that purchase villagers broken or damaged golds. Ye Gold Guys.)

 

[Skyscraper]

I vote for silver standard. Gold becomes rare(r) and cool. Flashing a gold coin at someone to bride him means something. And, as someone else pointed out, silver and copper become useless beyond level 1 if gold is the standard, so toning down the standard markes sense.

 

[mlund]

It's a little awkward to say, but there's a disconnect where dirt-farming peasants deal in property that's normally liquidated into gold coins. I'm not saying a farmer's total net worth couldn't be counted in several gold crowns, but even when buying farm animals, draft horses, and building barns and farmhouses I doubt anything but silver and copper change hands.

Copper: Common Currency among Peasants
Silver: Big Items for Peasants (Animals, Wagons, Small Boats, Buildings), Common Currency among Merchants (Trade Goods and Bulk Commodities)
Gold: Big Items for Merchants / Artisans (Armor, Weapons, Art, Workshops, Warehouses, and Barges), Common Currency among Nobles (Real Estate, Patronage, Troops)
Platinum: Big Items for Nobility (Manors, Festivals, Ships, Dowries), Common Currency among Governments (Public Works, Tribute / Ransom, Armies)

Ideally the mythical dragon's horde where he sleeps on a bed of tens of thousands of Gold Crowns plus scepters, gems, and other richers is more than a king's ransom - it's probably enough to raise and army and take a kingdom by force or found your own fledgling city-state. It shouldn't be "almost enough to buy a +6 Belt of Giant's Strength."

- Marty Lund