WEIGHT OF AN ELECTRUM COIN PORTABLE

Gold also is used as a form of communication among the high nobles. They are called crowns, gelt, guilder, daric, and other names. Gold coins typically are about the size of an American half-dollar, perhaps an 1.5 inches across and about a tenth of an inch thick. Gold coins are usually made by royal or imperial treasuries. They are called kruna, shils, ara, drachma, denari, and other names. Silver coins, though, are usually minted to be standard, and represent kingdoms, ports of trade, or anywhere with the size and financial institutions (e.g., merchants' guildhouse, shipping house, royal treasury, etc.). They are called things like groats, fennig, gersh, as (plural 'asses'), and whatnot. Copper coins may actually be bronze in some cases. The quality of copper coins varies considerably, but this is expected and accepted, and does not alter their comparative value. A large bank or trading house could do this, probably.Ĭopper and silver comes in penny weights, and are generally about the size of an American or Canadian penny. They would have to be converted into (at least) gold coins in order to be used as currency. Electrum is something rare, and is more commonly an alchemical ingredient than a unit of value, though bars or ingots of it would certainly be very valuable. These are of varying sizes, but usually no larger than a pound in weigh. Other coinages (e.g., Platinum and Electrum) do not exist as coins, though platinum may be minted into small bars with a maker's mark on them. This means that non-nobles tend to keep gems instead.Ĭopper coins are relatively common, silver is something you possess (and use for trade) if you have means, and gold is something that is used by the nobility. It is against the law in some places for commoners to hold gold or platinum. Once again, the historical solution could serve as our game-design solution: copper coins for peasants, silver coins for the daily trade of freemen, and gold coins for transactions between kings. Silver-based Monetary Standard (stolen, in large part, from Delta’s D&D Blog. Maybe, just maybe, players wont have to drop 8 pounds of gold (or 800 pounds of copper) for a suit of chainmail ) That will be my new house rule - 100 coins to the pound, so folks can actually pick up some of the copper they come across. Still a significant weight, but more realistic than PCs stacking 200 pounds of any type of coin. If we went with 100 coins a pound, those 2,000 coppers would weight just 20 pounds. I don't think the issue is so much 2000 coppers, but the 200 pounds of copper they represent in D&D derived games. Or, to put it another way, 9 US Quarters weight the same as 1 D&D Coin. US Quarters are approximately 90 to a pound. These coins would weigh twice as much Eisenhower Dollar Coins, which have about 20 to a pound. When you think of it, 10 coins making a pound results in some heavy coins. It just wasn't worth the effort to carry it.

WEIGHT OF AN ELECTRUM COIN PORTABLE

I think in most campaigns I've played in, unless the party had a portable hole or a bag of holding, copper and often silver pieces were being left behind. The 2,000 cp that were making the rounds on G+ and blogs last week would have weighed 200 pounds for 20 gp worth of spending power. Lets see - 10 coins of any metal type make a pound in most OSR systems. Actually, weight is a serious issue for coinage of all types in most OSR games. It seems to me that copper pieces are much like pennies - pretty worthless except in exceptional numbers, at which point weight becomes an issue.

Weight of an electrum coin