What do they do with the copper and silver?

[jdrakeh]

it is my experience that if a more precious metal is present, all lesser currencies are ignored.

 

[Ace]

it is my experience that if a more precious metal is present, all lesser currencies are ignored.

My guys will take copper and the like. Everybody needs spending money.

Its take it or leave it with me. If there is a lot of it my good PC's will take it and give it away.

 

[Terraism]

Very much depends on the character, for me. I've played - mostly, I think - greedy folk who'll take everything they can get (though nailed/bolted/sunk-into-the-floor taking varies,) and others who don't. Most recently, I've been playing a half-orc druid in an Eberron game, and he took very little. Very, very little.

Two reasons for that, though. For starters, I was playing a druid - significantly focused on shapeshifting. Most things weren't useful to me. Potions - I downed potions like I've never done before, and suspect I'll never do again - but other than that? Not much. So, it helped that the mechanics supported little need for items.

On the other hand, he was also more about doing the job for the sake of the people around, and he usually felt that the locals could use make better use of the coin. The party sorta decided not to let me talk anymore after I promised a town - very publically - the lion's share of our haul from a fairly nasty dungeon. (In all fairness, we couldn't carry most of it, anyway. )

 

[CruelSummerLord]

Take everything you can carry. If it's weighing you down, donate it to a church or something to gain favor. If you can't physically carry it all, then use some of the money you just grabbed to buy another bag of holding so you never have the problem again.

What happens if your DM doesn't allow magic shops in his campaign, so you can't buy a magic item, no matter how much cash you wave around?

 

[Mr. Beef]

I think most players at first like to get all the pieces of Gold, Silver, Copper and Platinum they can get their hands on. As they get more experience in playing they may get a bit jaded with a lot of copper pieces and a lot less of the silver and gold.

In the game that I played in, the money was kind of good, but no major league pay outs. I think the biggest amount we received was the equlivent of a Crown Royal bag full of silver pieces for telling a Dwarf Caravan about some quick sand we had run into in an encounter before that one. It was donated to a group of beggars one encounter later and we lost a few peices of equipment as well, but they were things we could replace.

 

[CruelSummerLord]

A lot of interesting-and humorous-replies. It's nice to see that the lower-value metals like copper and silver aren't neglected.

In response to jdrakeh: Remember that a lot of treasure hoards are created from wealth stolen from other places. If copper and silver coinage are more common than gold or platinum, it makes sense that these metals would crop up in fairly large amounts in monster treasure hoards. And even the wealthy in a fantasy setting would need copper and silver to pay their regular expenses-servants, stables, food, wood and other supplies, carpentry and plumbing maintenance, etc. If something costs twenty-three silver pieces, it makes more sense to just give the seller the exact change he's owed, rather than messing around with change. Besides, the gold and platinum can be saved for the really expensive stuff.

In response to Set: How did the dwarves react when the party hauled in the huge altar to Moradin?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, in my experience they try to grab it all.

In one case the PCs melted all the coins and made jewelry - partly because they could, partly because they wanted to increase the value, and partly because they were having a crafting contest....

The Auld Grump

 

[Slife]

Even when they got in trouble for passing off the gold plated copper coins they never even thought that maybe the copper from that horde was actually gold.

Wouldn't the density difference be a dead giveaway? I mean, the coins would weigh more than twice as much.

 

[Hejdun]

What happens if your DM doesn't allow magic shops in his campaign, so you can't buy a magic item, no matter how much cash you wave around?

Then why even bother taking any loot?

There are non-magical solutions, however. Like buying a cart and Mounting in a horse to pull it back to town.

 

[cougent]

A lot of interesting-and humorous-replies. It's nice to see that the lower-value metals like copper and silver aren't neglected.

In response to jdrakeh: Remember that a lot of treasure hoards are created from wealth stolen from other places. If copper and silver coinage are more common than gold or platinum, it makes sense that these metals would crop up in fairly large amounts in monster treasure hoards. And even the wealthy in a fantasy setting would need copper and silver to pay their regular expenses-servants, stables, food, wood and other supplies, carpentry and plumbing maintenance, etc. If something costs twenty-three silver pieces, it makes more sense to just give the seller the exact change he's owed, rather than messing around with change. Besides, the gold and platinum can be saved for the really expensive stuff.

In response to Set: How did the dwarves react when the party hauled in the huge altar to Moradin?

Probably not the best analogy, but...
On the idea of carrying only gold and platinum, go into a 7-11 and try buying a cup of coffe while paying with a $100 bill. They will either tell you that they cannot cash that, or you will have to wait for 4 people to buy something else with a $20 to get all your change back. Now transpose that to the small tavern in the middle of tinyville and try to buy a bowl of gruel and a tankard while paying with a platinum... you may still end up washing dishes to pay for your meal.