What do you have in your coinpurse?

[Shaddakim]

I'm doing some re-vamp work on my campaign and have a question for everyone:

Does the money in your game have specific names for the coins (penny [copper], denarii [silver], noble [gold], bar [platinum]) or do you use the generic version (cp, sp, gp, pp)?

I am interested in everyones experience on this. Thank you for your time in advance.

[Edsel]

In our last fantasy campaign there were 4 different coinage standards that dominated to currency market. Each currency had its own names for the coins within them but we included a chart that gave the equivant values in the traditional manner. For instance a Gold Crown was worth 2 Gp standard.

One of the varieties of currency was simply the Gp, Sp, Cp thing but each coin had its own name and that currency was generally considered the standard by most merchants.

I know these details are a bit sketchy but I am typing this at work during my lunch break so I do not have our background material here with me.

It is an interesting idea and can add a lot of flavor to a game, however in our experience everybody still kept track of their personal wealth in terms of the traditional Gp, Sp, Cp, etc. standard.

[Worldmaker]

My gameworld, Taranche, operates on the silver standard. And that's about the only unified thing you can say about its economy.

The Imperial System: The Imperial system is perhaps the most widespread currency system in the Young Kingdoms; Imperial coins are still being minted and exchanged in the Border Kingdoms, the Broken Kingdom, Soravia, Tyressel, Beurenist, Goertha despite it being just over 700 years since the fall of the Taor Empire.

1 gold consalte = 10 silver predes = 100 copper pisantes

Imperial coins are about the same size and weight as an American quarter. Each coin has a hole in its center, through which is run a thin metal rod. The usual length of such rods is such as to hold 100 coins. Such a system aids in sorting, counting and transportation. Each type of coin has a differently shaped hole to prevent intermixing of coins: consaltes have triangular holes, predes have square holes, and pisantes have octagonal holes.


The Lemenari System: The currency used by the people of the Lemenar Archipelago is perhaps the second-most widespread type of currency, if only because Lemenari ships trade nearly everywhere. You can find Lemenari coins as far inland as Bor Aladorna. The Lemenari system has been in use for almost 500 years.

1 gold drokmire = 5 silver genai = 100 copper drenth

Lemenari coins are small, averaging the same size and weight as an American dime.


The EasterSea System: The third most widespread system of coinage is the so-called EasterSea System. Through centuries of interkingdom trade, Soravia, Calafia, Gallesgna, and Keleven, and the other kingdoms along the shores of the EasterSea have developed a unified and coherent currency system.

1 gold crown (c) = 10 silver pennies (p) = 20 copper farthings (f)

These coins often end up in neighboring nations.


The Jarisian System: Unique among the various peoples of the Young Kingdoms, the Jaris use paper money. Called dinars, these bills of credit are painstakingly created by talented craftsmen using printing-press technology (a technological secret which has not yet found its way to the wider world).

Each Jarisian kingdom prints its own currency, and each bill carries the signature of the King, his picture, and his seal. The bills are printed in 1, 10, 100, and 1000 dinar values.

Dinars are considered utterly worthless outside of their native lands. Some, however, can be found in the purses of the more well-to-do Beurenisti and sometimes in the Border Kingdoms.


The Dwarven System: Dwarves cling stubbornly to tradition, which is how this system of currency has remained unchanged for thousands of years. Raw iron forms the backbone of dwarven currency. A dwarf plucks his own wealth from the ground with his own hands. Purified iron is used as wealth based on weight. This follows the dwarven belief that hard work is rewarded and the lazy should go hungry.

Beyond mining iron from the ground as wealth, dwarves use large and decorative coins. The krona is a large copper coin with intricate etchings. It is the least valuable and most common coin. A kegran is a large silver coin with an embedded jewel, usually a ruby or emerald. A mourin is a highly decorative golden disk about seven inches in diameter. A mourin is etched with runes and simple images and is almost always crusted with small gems. A mourin is more like a small work of art than a coin. Many dwarves specialize in the manufacture of these items. Others pay for them with raw iron.

1 mourin = 7 kegran = 49 krona

While dwarven currency is prized in many nations for the materials and workmanship that go into them, the dwarves themselves care little for the money of other nations and usually melt such coins down for the metal.


Mixed Economies: Many nations, because of their nature or geography, conduct trade with many other cultures. These include Dentraver, the cities of the Lost Coast, the Frontier cities, the Free Cities, Povero, and Last Point. These nations, for various reasons, accept virtually all currencies, either at face value or for the base weight of the metal in their make.

Many of these nations allow trade and barter right along side the various currencies. So, a citizen of Dentraver might pay for goods with silver predes, copper pennies, or even a chicken. Such an unorganized system might seem unstable, but in practice, such systems tend to balance themselves due to internal economic forces.


Trade and Barter: Some societies exist using nothing more than barter, tempered by tradition, custom, and common law. Such societies include the Chayk, Rostok, and Nerulk barbarians, the Aateni, the people of Alebron Island, and the goblin tribes.

[Vanguard00]

Originally posted by Shaddakim
I'm doing some re-vamp work on my campaign and have a question for everyone:

Does the money in your game have specific names for the coins (penny [copper], denarii [silver], noble [gold], bar [platinum]) or do you use the generic version (cp, sp, gp, pp)?



Give the coinage names, by all means. It's these "little" details that promote the feeling of "realistic" fantasy. Even if it's only basic and/or thinly-veiled thievery, the names of money can make a big difference in believability.

For example, go with something basic:

gold = Imperials
silver = Orbs
copper = Crescents

Then, when working on another land, give them different names and slightly different values. For example:

2 Dragons (of Kyrindor) is equal to 3 Imperials (of Byrash)

...or something along those lines.

Worldmaker's system is an excellent example of something more extensive, but don't be afraid to use something simple like a name change, either.

[MarkusDark]

For a Live Action game, I had a system called Lunars. They were based upon the phases of the moon.

You'd have a quarter Lunar, or a Phase (shaped like a crescent moon), a half Lunar (shaped like half a circle) and then a Lunar (a full coin). They were made out of silver.

Then you had the gold coins. A gold Phase was same shape as a silver Phase and worth 7 silver Lunars (or 28 Phases). And then you had the gold half Lunar and then the full gold Lunar.

That was it. Something a player came up with was that if he was out of money, he was "New" (as in a New Moon).

However, I was eventually over-ruled by 'old school' neoates that wanted the 100cp=10sp=1gp so I dropped a grand and got them.

[Steve Long]

There's a sidebar in FH with a long list of real-world names for various medieval-era coinage. That'll help you some in the near future. ;)

Beyond that, you can always name 'em after what they depict, or their shape.

[Worldmaker]

Originally posted by Vanguard00
Worldmaker's system is an excellent example of something more extensive, but don't be afraid to use something simple like a name change, either.

:D Just a small indicator of why I use "Worldmaker" as a handle. I tend to go freaking nuts with the detail...

But then, as a Global Guardians participant, you know this already. :D

[Edsel]

Now that I am home and have access to my book, below is the break down of coinage in our old fantasy campaign. Starting with Corindian which was the standard used by most merchants. The coin vary in purity from mint to mint and thus the weight varies.

Corindian
Gold Penny = 1 gp = 10 sp, weight 1/4 oz.
Silver Penny = 1 sp = 10 bp, weight 1/4 oz.
Bronze Penny = 1 bp = 10 cp, weight 1/2 oz.
Copper Penny = 1 cp = 10 tp, weight 1/4 oz.
Tin Penny = 1 tp, weight 1/4 oz.

Galean
Gold Hundredpiece = 20 gp = 200 sp, weight 5 oz.
Gold Crown = 2 gp = 20 sp, weight 1/2 oz.
Silver Star = 4 sp = 40 bp, weight 1 oz.
Silver Royal = 1 sp = 10 bp, weight 1/4 oz.
Bronze Copper = 1/2 bp = 5 cp, weight 1/4 oz.
Copper Half = 1/4 bp = 2 1/2 cp, weight 5/8 oz.
Copper Bit = 1 cp = 10 tp, weight 1/4 oz.

Ambrian
Gold Piece = 1 gp = 10 sp, weight 1/4 oz.
Silver Piece = 1 sp = 10 bp, weight 1/4 oz.
Copper = 1 cp = 10 tp, weight 1/4 oz.
Half-copper = 1/2 cp = 5 tp, weight 1/8 oz.
Quater Copper = 1/4 cp = 2 1/2 tp, weight 1/16 oz.

Dwarven
Gold Royal = 12 gp = 120 sp, weight 2 oz.
Gold Round = 1 gp = 10 sp, weight 1/7 oz.
Silver Shield = 2 sp = 20 bp, weight 1/3 oz.
Silver Round = 1 sp = 10 bp, weight 1/7 oz.
Bronze Round = 1 bp = 10 cp, weight 1/4 oz.
Copper Round = 1 cp = 10 tp, weight 1/4 oz.

Kalanarian
Sulus = 1 gp = 10 sp, weight 1/4 oz.
Aire = 1 sp = 10 bp, weight 1/4 oz.
Dink = 1 bp = 10 cp, weight 1/2 oz.
Nok = 1 1/5 cp = 12 tp, weight 2/5 oz.
Dot = 1 tp, weight 1/4 oz.

Cammon
Olm = 2 gp = 20 sp, weight 1/2 oz.
Dralak = 1 sp = 10 bp, weight 1/4 oz.
Darl = 1/2 sp = 5 bp, weight 1/8 oz.
Drim = 1 bp = 10 cp, weight 1/2 oz.
Dram = 1/2 cp = 5 tp, weight 1/8 oz.

[tkdguy]

I have a few sources that state the ratio 1:20:12. That means 1 gp = 20 sp, and 1 sp = 12 cp. By the 17th century, at least, a copper coin was considered too debased to be of any value.

Here are some values for coinage from GURPS Swashbucklers. I'll also include the metal used, according to the book: Au = gold, Ag = silver, Cu = copper (see above note).

Spain: 1 Doblon/Doubloon (Au) = 2 Pistoles (Au) = 5 Pesos/Pieces of eight (Ag) = 40 Reals (Ag) = 1360 Maravedis (Cu) = $100

France: 1 Louis d'Or/Pistole (Au) = 3 Ecus (Ag) = 9 Livre (Ag) = 180 Sous (Cu) = $60

England: 1 Guinea (Au) = 1.05 Pounds (a unit of account, not a coin) = 4.2 Crowns (Ag) = 21 Shillings (Ag) = 252 Pennies (Cu) = $105

Holland: 1 Ducat (Au) = 2.5 Lion Dollars (Ag) = 5 Florins/Guldens/Guilders (Ag) = 100 Stuivers (Cu) = $40

Don't worry about farthings, ha'pennies, groots, piastres, krone, and the like...you'll only go insane.

[CrosshairCollie]

I was in a game once where someone had fancy names for all the different types of coinage ...

We could never remember them. So we didn't even have 'gold pieces' ... it was 'gold thingies' or 'silver whatsits'.

[AnotherSkip]

Make up a decent story about _why_ the coin is named as such, and go with that, the example below is one of the seven stoire I have about the coins of the world for my fantasy campaign, also don't forget the chart too.....(since I dont use the 1to 10 ratio since that was developed during the American post colonial period IIRC)

The Arbelest Shael first began life as a comissioned piece from the Kingdom of Arbelest in honor of the 50th anniversarry of the wedding of the Paen and Arbelest Kingdoms. Eventually the popularity of this royally wed couple proved that at least a sign of their love would one day outlive all but their own legends. A half dozen unclipped Shaels is regarded as being worth a Sundollar, typically, though most are clipped and so are only considered 1/10th the value of a Sundollar. The Shael bears the name and image of the ship belonging to the Arbelst Princess who became queen of Arbelest through the marriage of herself to the Paen prince. The reverse is marked with the rock the prince sat awaiting upon his princess, as well as being a place where he sought solitude and to finally come to love the sea as much as his homeland. The edge of the coin is marked with seascrolling around the edge, however since this easily fades the coins are more easily clipped than any others of higher value.

[ZootSoot]

Originally posted by Shaddakim
I'm doing some re-vamp work on my campaign and have a question for everyone:

Does the money in your game have specific names for the coins (penny [copper], denarii [silver], noble [gold], bar [platinum]) or do you use the generic version (cp, sp, gp, pp)?

I am interested in everyones experience on this. Thank you for your time in advance.

Well, usually each authority in my campaigns tends to use only one species when minting coins (silver is preferred) and everyone of them likes to have them be roughly the same value as their competitors, so most tag their size and metal content to the dominant economy, though they might be using a different species for their coins. I try to name two or three of these currencies, but the name of the dominant economy is what is usually used generically.

[TechnoViking]

Hopefully I will have $31.99 +tax in coinpurse to buy FH when it gets to Utah.

Mike

[tiger]

A Snapping turtlt..keeps thieves on thier toes.

[AnotherSkip]

After a few encounters with snapping tutrles I too would be using my toes for just about everything......

[Markdoc]

I use different currencies - I even have picures of many of the coins. And to add to the fun, some cultures have lots of "odd" coins minted for special occasions, or old coins that are in circulation, but no longer made.

Not only does it add atmosphere, but it also allows me to throw in coins as clues.

When the players search the body :-) and find a pouch full of rudely-formed gold beads instead of the expected coins, it makes the smart ones go "Hmmmm. Where did THESE come from?"

As a final bonus, it allows me to strip away wealth from the PCs though the need to change strange "furrin" currency into somthing that people will accept where they are currently living.

cheers, Mark

[PhilFleischmann]

I never bothered working out a detailed coinage system for my FH world - which is somewhat surprising considering all the other details I did work out (calendar, zodiac, heavenly bodies, dieties, etc.). I don't keep strict track of money in my campaign. This must come across as heresy to some, but I've always found it too boring to spend time on. I want my players to be adventurers, not accountants. This was one of the things I always hated when I was living in the primordial slime of deendee that we all crawled out of. Money just isn't interesting enough to keep track of every fictitious coin. If I wanted to play Monopoly, I'd play Monopoly.

You may say: But how do you regulate what equipment players can buy? Simple: If they don't have the Money Perk, they only have access to standard "middle-class" equipment (assuming it's available at all in the town where they happen to be). In my campaign, there are no "magic item stores" where you can buy fireball wands and invisibility cloaks and talking swords off the rack.

I keep the world's economics fairly simple and vague: commoners do most of their trading via the barter system. In urban areas, coins are used. Unskilled laborers (swineherds, woodcutters, farmhands) are paid in copper. Skilled laborers (smiths, bakers, carpenters, craftsmen) are paid in silver. Gold is almost exclusively for the rich.

In a medieval-style society almost no one (except the PCs) are "upwardly mobile." If you're born a peasant, you'll stay a peasant. If you're born a noble, you might squander it all away and end up penniless, through gambling, drinking, wenching, etc., but apart from that, you'll tend to remain rich.

The two main nations in the central area of the campaign - Virbenland, and Neron - use similar coins which are usually considered interchangable. A Neronian silver piece is the same size as a Virbenlandic silver piece. Only the design engraved thereon is different. In more distant lands, such as Temna, on the far side of the Snake Peaks, other types of currency are used such as electrum. And in some, such as the primitive Boo-Wa-Doki, far to the south, they have no coins at all (and almost no metal to speak of), and sometimes use ceramic beads as a means of exchange.

That's about it. No price lists. No inventories of how many GPs, SPs, and CPs each player has. I say to the players, "You're strangers here. Rugged adventurers, not noblemen on a diplomatic mission. You won't be sleeping in the palace. You'll be sleeping at the inn where other common travellers stay. However, unlike most common travellers, you can afford to each stay in your own room (subject to availability) because of the treasure you've accumulated."

[Shaddakim]

Hey, I wanted to thank everyone who contributed to this thread. My apologies for the extreme delay in this. Everything said was useful and provided me with views I had not thought of.

Again, my thanks to everyone.
:D

[Citizen Keen]

Yeah, I have to say that the Money Perk concept in HERO made my day. No more accounting. I still intend to put lots of detail into coinages used in different kingdoms, but now I can just give people the stuff they get with no accounting.

[Talon]

I took a middle road -- I kept money in, but generalized it to one set of coins across cultures. As others have said, it's not something that most people want to pay attention to. I used special names, but tried to keep them memorable: crowns, stars, pennies, etc. I was running low-fantasy, where money tends to be more of an issue; if I ran high-fantasy, I'd be tempted to just try the Perk (although, how do you handle finding treasure?).

[Jeff]

Originally posted by Geoff Speare
I took a middle road -- I kept money in, but generalized it to one set of coins across cultures. As others have said, it's not something that most people want to pay attention to. I used special names, but tried to keep them memorable: crowns, stars, pennies, etc. I was running low-fantasy, where money tends to be more of an issue; if I ran high-fantasy, I'd be tempted to just try the Perk (although, how do you handle finding treasure?).
If characters opt/manage to keep it, the player buys the Money perk. Think of it as a financial radiation accident.

If characters opt to give it away, it's given away and, if it's a suitable decent donation, they're being heroic that way too - although reputations for charity can be dangerous in their own way.

If characters aren't careful, they can lose it in any number of incidents of GM nastiness. Be creative!

[McCoy]

My last campagine was strongly Runequest influenced. The God of Trade had instituted a common currency throughout civilization, the coins may have different designs, but they all weighed one ounce troy and were used from one end of the contenent to the other. Blogs were lead, clacks copper, lunars silver, and wheels gold. There was also a decimal system, 1 Wheel = 10 Lunars = 100 Clacks = 1000 Blogs.

Simply as a cost example, a Wheel could support an average family for a month. A mercenary could be hired to guard a caravan for a lunar a day, double for each day they actually fought. Unskilled labor was usually 2 Clacks a day, an apprentice 3, a journyman 4. At an Inn 2 clacks would get you bread and stew and the privilege of sleeping on the floor of the common room (all alcoholic beverages extra).

Odd coins and differing exchange rates are certainly realistic, but I didn't want to make the game about the acqusition of wealth.

[Citizen Keen]

Originally posted by Geoff Speare
...I'd be tempted to just try the Perk (although, how do you handle finding treasure?).

I generally have characters have spending habits equal to their level of Money Perk or more. Examples (this post isn't going to be cogent because I'm not)

One player is a luckless gambler. While he frequently finds treasure, he gambles it all away into debt. As such he is poor.

Another player saves everything - as such, he is well off.

If the poor player was convinced by his friends to buy a weapon I reserve for my choice or Well-Off or above, then it would be stolen very quickly.

[Blue]

Mildly amusing story:

I mentioned to the players that money was different from continent to continent. The characters were so used to gold and silver as currency that when they came across the opportunity to make off with a chest full of very heavy silver coins or to load their boat with a much greater quantity of of northern coins (Simply called "Northers" by the denizens of the southern continent) they naturally went with the metal coins. Of course they'd have had enough money for a fleet of ships if they'd taken the cheaper looking coins becasue the next thing they were going to do is go to the northern continent (I forget the name). Instead they were only able to charter one other ship as a guide around the north.

The northerners used "bone" coins because they were lighter, for the very reason that they spent so much time in longboats. Metal coins are useless to them and too soft to melt for weapons.

[Blue Jogger]

I used the following for mine:

1 Golden Royal = 20 Royals = 400 Silver = 8000 Ol' Yellers
$2000 = 20 $100 = 400 $5 = 8000 quarters

Ol' Yellers were what happen to "gold pieces" after magic went away and revealed that all gold coins were actually enchanted counterfeit gold-colored rocks.

[Panpiper]

I think that's called 'necro' Blue Jogger, when you resurrect a thread six years dead. ;)

It just so happens however that I've been putting together my own currency system for my own world and, well, here it is:

I'm building a currency system that is largely based on real world historical values and ratios. In order to keep it intuitive for the players, I am naming the currency units after what they already understand, to some degree.

The most common coin used for normal daily transactions would be the penny, which is a large copper coin larger than a US quarter. One penny is enough to buy a small loaf of bread. There are also technically 'tenthpence' which are small copper coins roughly the size of a dime which is used for even smaller transactions and making change.

The most common coin that players would concern themselves with is the 'Dime' also refereed to as a 'Silver'. This is a silver coin the size of today's US dimes. It represents one day's wages for a typical unskilled laborer and is enough to buy common room shelter and enough basic gruel to survive. A day's stay in a decent inn with a small lockable private room, three meals, three drinks, and stabling for a horse would cost 3 dimes, 2 if you are willing to slum it.

Next up would be a Quarter, a silver coin worth two and a half dimes and sized just like today's US quarters. And finally, there comes the silver Dollar, an unusual coin for the common man on the street, but an oft used measure among the nobility and wealthy merchants.

Gold coins exist but are seldom used except for very large transactions. They exist in two denominations, the more common and much smaller coin is the Ducat (sometimes simply referred to as a gold piece) the same size as a dime and finally the much larger Dubloon, the same size as a silver Dollar but obviously worth much more. A Ducat is worth ten dollars and a Dubloon is worth one hundred Dollars.

So to restate in perhaps a more legible form:

2 Tenthpence = Mug of weak ale. Dime sized copper.
10 Tenthpence = 1 Penny (Small loaf of bread) Dollar sized copper.
10 Pennies = 1 Silver Piece/Dime (Day's unskilled wages) Dime sized silver.
25 Pennies = 1 Quarter Quarter sized silver.
10 Dimes = 1 Dollar (Three day's lodging and stabling at a nice Inn.) Dollar sized silver.
10 Dollars = 1 Gold Piece/Ducat (A month's wages for a skilled craftsman.) Dime sized gold.
10 Ducats = 1 Dubloon (A month's allowance for pampered nobility.) Dollar sized gold.

A simplification of the above system, in keeping with actual currency values would be to simply refer to coppers, silvers and gold pieces. Assume that 100 coppers equals a silver and that 100 silvers equals a gold piece. All coins are approximately the same size (I recommend dime sized)

Price for a fine suit of heavy full plate, ornate, fully fluted, gothic articulation and gold leaf embossing: 4 Dubloons, or 4000 Silvers.

[Curufea]

I worked out a blazon to describe coinage for the Western Shores (http://www.curufea.com/hero/doku.php/ws:currency)

Felines used Chinese names are generally based on medieval Chinese and use paper money.
Humans used English names and medieval european coinage.
Lizardmen used Greek and Middle Eastern names. Coinage is large with lots of raised surfaces because of less tactile sense.
Elves used Tolkein elvish names. Coins are thematic according to philosophy, and highly magical.
Dwarves use a modified Tolkein dwarvish. Coins are machine stamped and the strongest currency.

The most recent game was set in the human culture areas, so that coinage was used - which is based on the Imperial system of pounds, shillings, pence.

Average wage (http://www.curufea.com/hero/doku.php/ws:wages)

Average prices (http://www.curufea.com/hero/doku.php/ws:prices)

Western Shores human culture based money

1f (Pint of ale) Mug of weak ale.
1f (Bread, Barley or Rye, Loaf - Wheat costs 2f) Small loaf of bread
3f (Labourer) Day's unskilled wages
2s (Room, single bed, private + Stabling, with Feed) Three day's lodging and stabling at a nice Inn
7s 6d (Master Carpenter) A month's wages for a skilled craftsman.
L23 3d (income for a Baronet) - A month's allowance for pampered nobility.

f = farthing (1/4 penny), d = penny, s = shilling (12d), L= pound (20s)

[Markdoc]

All my cultures have their own currencies and also rules about taxation and what is/is not acceptable tender. Some of them even have pictures of their coins! The current game uses a simple gold/silver/crap-metal coin system where the coins are called Crowns/Sails/Oars respectively with 20 Sails in a Crown and 24 Oars in a Sail. The coins get their names because the gold coins are the traditional province of the high nobility (and usually carry their symbol on the face), while silver coins are typically minted by lesser nobility called shiplords - and they are, yes, typically emblazoned with a ship on the face. There are various oddball sizes minted by different lords, which are referred to half-crowns, double sails, etc, but that doesn't change the basic structure.

cheers, Mark

[Panpiper]

Traditionally, in ports where many currencies would often be found, virtually any currency would be accepted, as long as it were known that the currency was of reasonably pure metal. Merchants would simply weigh the currency metal to determine it's actual value and the transaction would proceed. So it is very feasible to have many currencies in use and they all be accepted.

No self respecting merchant would turn down perfectly good silver or gold, just because it happened to be an odd sized 'nugget'. The only reason they would, wold be if the ruler had declared that illegal, which would instantly have a massive chilling effect upon trade with any nation other than one's own (virtually freezing it in fact).

[Alcamtar]

I'm thinking of using mnemonic names for coins in my new campaign:

gold = guilder
silver = shilling or shield
copper = common (or maybe penny)

Its very tempting to use the 12 pence to a shilling ratio, but I'll probably go decimal to avoid irritating my players. ;-)

Coins will probably be very large, around 25 per kg, since this world is also shared with a D&D campaign. It's really tempting to use different money systems, with FH on a silver standard, but right now I'm leaning toward consistency.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Traditionally, in ports where many currencies would often be found, virtually any currency would be accepted, as long as it were known that the currency was of reasonably pure metal. Merchants would simply weigh the currency metal to determine it's actual value and the transaction would proceed. So it is very feasible to have many currencies in use and they all be accepted.

No self respecting merchant would turn down perfectly good silver or gold, just because it happened to be an odd sized 'nugget'. The only reason they would, wold be if the ruler had declared that illegal, which would instantly have a massive chilling effect upon trade with any nation other than one's own (virtually freezing it in fact).

I know Leo Frankowski put that bit in about weighing coins, and it has probably appeared other places, too, but that's cutting your own throat. Remember that the declared value of a currency is defined by taxation on the one hand, and a coinage fee on the other. In short, it will trade at a significant premium to its value as bullion. So if you take the value of (say) a English coin by weight in Amsterdam, you've just lost some proportion of its value in England.
The question is, can you get it back to England to spend it? Now we are introducing variables such as transportation costs, security, and the availability of English coins in Amsterdam (since a trader bound for England will be buying up English coins at some price between their weight as metal and their face value in England, and the variation will depend on the number of merchants bound for England and the number of English coins in circulation in Amsterdam).
Exchange rates did not just start yesterday.
This is just an awesome book if you've got a knack for currency trading: http://www.amazon.ca/War-Economy-Age-William-Marlborough/dp/0631160698/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259172541&sr=8-3

[Panpiper]

I know Leo Frankowski put that bit in about weighing coins, and it has probably appeared other places, too, but that's cutting your own throat. Remember that the declared value of a currency is defined by taxation on the one hand, and a coinage fee on the other. In short, it will trade at a significant premium to its value as bullion. So if you take the value of (say) a English coin by weight in Amsterdam, you've just lost some proportion of its value in England.
The question is, can you get it back to England to spend it? Now we are introducing variables such as transportation costs, security, and the availability of English coins in Amsterdam (since a trader bound for England will be buying up English coins at some price between their weight as metal and their face value in England, and the variation will depend on the number of merchants bound for England and the number of English coins in circulation in Amsterdam).
Exchange rates did not just start yesterday.
This is just an awesome book if you've got a knack for currency trading: http://www.amazon.ca/War-Economy-Age-William-Marlborough/dp/0631160698/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259172541&sr=8-3

In the context of a fantasy game, it is far more dangerous to ease of play in my opinion, if you try to account for the machinations of renaisance and later governments and bureacracies. Yes, all sorts of strange things started to happen to currency in the last five hundred years. But if we focus on the years prior to that, things get 'much' easier to understand.

Currency at the level of fantasy is simply a barter mechanism, where the easiest commodity for the barter is precious metals. Only the weight of the metal counts in such a barter economy. Things like 'face value' are relatively modern inventions. Rulers did attempt to fool the public by shaving metal off their coins so as to have more of them, but the effect of that was simply to create an inflationary effect upon the coin price. It had no effect on the metal weight price. For the sake of fantasy, it is best for a GM to assume that the ruler is not shaving coins, lest the GM have to rewrite their price list repeatedly, of factor in an inflation modifier for every transaction made by their players.

Economists have done a magnificent job in the 20th century of obfuscating the entire field and magnifying the complexity of the subject so far as to occult understanding by even the best of economists. If economists really understood modern economics, we would not be in the economic mess we are in today. Indeed, it is my contention that we are in the crisis we face these days precisely 'because' economists don't know the first thing about economics. And I've studied economics! ;)

[Curufea]

I'm thinking of using mnemonic names for coins in my new campaign:

gold = guilder
silver = shilling or shield
copper = common (or maybe penny)

Its very tempting to use the 12 pence to a shilling ratio, but I'll probably go decimal to avoid irritating my players. ;-)

Coins will probably be very large, around 25 per kg, since this world is also shared with a D&D campaign. It's really tempting to use different money systems, with FH on a silver standard, but right now I'm leaning toward consistency.

It's your choice to balance playability versus worldbuilding. There are other areas this appears too - every time you want something original, you have to guess at how playable it will be, whether the players will like the originality of the setting, or whether it confuses them and stops them killing orcs for too long :)

These things include currency, calendars, languages, names for common items, and of course races. One of the main reasons that fantasy campaigns are so unoriginal is that the designers fear changing things from the stereotypes.

[Lawnmower Boy]

I don't know how far back you want to go to find your unspoiled, pre-economic fantasy paradise, but here is Thirteenth Century Catholic theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas on the theory of money. It's a little hard to follow, being in an apologetic context, but clearly the notion of the "value of money" was no novelty in 1300AD.
http://books.google.ca/books?id=0gOm51etij0C&pg=PA196&lpg=PA196&dq=aquinas+on+coinage&source=bl&ots=DWDvpre7rs&sig=pwgSoin-NG6ksjcigNzdk9Z4UrQ&hl=en&ei=q70NS-_uHo-ssgOgz8HJCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CB0Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

[Markdoc]

In the context of a fantasy game, it is far more dangerous to ease of play in my opinion, if you try to account for the machinations of renaisance and later governments and bureacracies. Yes, all sorts of strange things started to happen to currency in the last five hundred years. But if we focus on the years prior to that, things get 'much' easier to understand.

It goes back much further than that - the difference between precious metal value of coins and the actual value of the coins goes back at least to the age of the greeks and the Romans in particular struggled mightily with debasement of the currency (http://ettuantiquities.com/Philip_1/Philip1-Antoninianus.htm). The Song Dynasty Jiozai, dating from the 600's was made of paper, but convertible for bronze currency: there's an example from well before the renaissance where value had nothing to do with bullion.

Personally, I like adding these quirks to the game - and the players don't seem to mind.

cheers, Mark

[Lucius]

I've tended to use the gold sun and the silver moon (named for obvious reasons) and the copper buck (named for the image of an antlered stag's head it displays)
I may change the terminology when I run a fantasy game again.

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary wonders if it matters what you call money - will it come if called?

[Beast]

the fantasy PAH I'm in is using shards
Steel
Iron
copper

[AmadanNaBriona]

the fantasy PAH I'm in is using shards
Steel
Iron
copper

I've always been fond of the idea of "bits" as PA small change, inspired by the scene in Blood of Heroes where villagers are buying their way into a party with various nuts, bolts, washers and other small but occasionally useful pieces of scrap

[Matt Holck]

endless supply of delicate files and wires to be left inside picked locks

[John-Walton]

I like the title of the thread since it reminds of the dear riddle game in Hobbit.

however, on topic:
in our games it was "piece", as in silver piece, which were common.
any duke, town, church or guild could mint coins.

and then there were "crowns"; such as gold crowns, platinum crowns, etc,
which were heavier, 10x value of an equiv. piece, and which almost always came from a kingdom's mint.

[Matt Holck]

I ran a communist village as one of my campaign worlds center point called "whistle"
the mayor collected and distributed fairly (hey medium fantasy)
the population was around 300



I never bothered working out a detailed coinage system for my FH world - which is somewhat surprising considering all the other details I did work out (calendar, zodiac, heavenly bodies, dieties, etc.). I don't keep strict track of money in my campaign. This must come across as heresy to some, but I've always found it too boring to spend time on. I want my players to be adventurers, not accountants. This was one of the things I always hated when I was living in the primordial slime of deendee that we all crawled out of. Money just isn't interesting enough to keep track of every fictitious coin. If I wanted to play Monopoly, I'd play Monopoly.

You may say: But how do you regulate what equipment players can buy? Simple: If they don't have the Money Perk, they only have access to standard "middle-class" equipment (assuming it's available at all in the town where they happen to be). In my campaign, there are no "magic item stores" where you can buy fireball wands and invisibility cloaks and talking swords off the rack.

I keep the world's economics fairly simple and vague: commoners do most of their trading via the barter system. In urban areas, coins are used. Unskilled laborers (swineherds, woodcutters, farmhands) are paid in copper. Skilled laborers (smiths, bakers, carpenters, craftsmen) are paid in silver. Gold is almost exclusively for the rich.

In a medieval-style society almost no one (except the PCs) are "upwardly mobile." If you're born a peasant, you'll stay a peasant. If you're born a noble, you might squander it all away and end up penniless, through gambling, drinking, wenching, etc., but apart from that, you'll tend to remain rich.

The two main nations in the central area of the campaign - Virbenland, and Neron - use similar coins which are usually considered interchangable. A Neronian silver piece is the same size as a Virbenlandic silver piece. Only the design engraved thereon is different. In more distant lands, such as Temna, on the far side of the Snake Peaks, other types of currency are used such as electrum. And in some, such as the primitive Boo-Wa-Doki, far to the south, they have no coins at all (and almost no metal to speak of), and sometimes use ceramic beads as a means of exchange.

That's about it. No price lists. No inventories of how many GPs, SPs, and CPs each player has. I say to the players, "You're strangers here. Rugged adventurers, not noblemen on a diplomatic mission. You won't be sleeping in the palace. You'll be sleeping at the inn where other common travellers stay. However, unlike most common travellers, you can afford to each stay in your own room (subject to availability) because of the treasure you've accumulated."

Well in the case of my noble's lost status, he is a lone survivor of a family line that was murdered.
He is not about to go claim rights to lost property for fear of joining his family in purgatory.