This is another question related to the money supply. Even in the high-level G series of 1st Edition modules written by Gygax, there were large denominations of copper and silver coins available as treasure for players. It's worth wondering, however, whether most characters would go for the copper and silver, or just ignore it in favor of the higher-value treasures like gems, jewelry, furs and platinum.
So I'm asking this: Do your players ever gather or use the copper and silver treasures you as DM might make available? If so, what do they use it for?
Gold is the currency of the nobility. Commoners probably never see it, nor would they be likely to want to make change for it. They may not even want to accept it for any number of reason, not the least of which would be punishment either as a thief if seen with it (because again, only nobles have gold) or in violation of sumptuary laws.
My players are selfish, given the opportunity to pick up a horde of - say
37000 cp
21000 sp
15000 gp
1200 pp
The monsters will be left with all of their copper, and probably most of their silver. As adventurers, they see copper as 'below' them. As for uses, I did have one player make a 'breadcrumb' trail through a dungeon using copper peices. It worked beautifully until a group of orcs started messing with it! _________________ Michael Erin Sandar Bard of Midwood
Thieves. Yep, thieves. Gold attracts them like metal attracts rust monsters. My players have learned that throwing gold around gets you a reputation, warrented or not. Gold means you're wealthy and if you're wealthy, you can be ransomed. Well, at least that what common thieves believe. Gold, as in other campaigns, means that you at least deal with nobles or perhaps, you've stolen from them. Either way, using gold and telling commoners to "keep the change" places my pc's in suspicion. My players have learned that having gold can, under the right circumstances, get them into as much trouble as not having it. Granted it's not a "no-win" situation, but my pc's have learned the value of commoners gold (copper) and ferry wages (silver). Every now and then they catch a break and find ancient coins that have a higher gold composition, so their coins do run into being worth a 5:1 or 10:1.
The gold standard is broke. This is a problem I have with D&D, only worsened by each following edition. Even from level 1 a character's net worth is usually hundreds of GP's and immediately the career adventurer can only function by accumulating vast sums, like Andy said, that commoners will never see. Each treasure haul in a dungeon has to be a king's ransom or a dragon's hoard, just for one character to save for that magic item he always wanted. I wish Gygax would have aimed lower coin-wise in his game. The reason being, in his GH novel Saga of Old City, the coin standard was set much lower. There was iron, bronze, copper, silver THEN gold pieces. Good ol Gord could RETIRE on a handful platinum he stole! Not so in he game of D&D, that will buy him a potion or two. I could ramble on, you get the idea.
Even if you use iron and brass and bronze the system is still not going to resemble anything like a functional economic system.
So why worry about it?
Besides, its a lot more fun to talk about having thousands of gold pieces than it is to talk about having thousands of copper pieces.
Whether they take it all generally depends on how anal the DM is on weight (and how many magic bags they have). I generally don't require the PCs to account for the trivial expenses that are covered in copper and silver unless there is a story reason to do so.
I would like to quibble a bit about the above comments. Gold isn't really the coin of the nobility, at least in a medieval european simulation. In fact, gold was not a coined metal at all until the very late era as Europe transitioned to the rennaissance. And it was first coined by the italian merchant states to make international trade easier.
The middle east (including Byzantium) and the far east (esp china) had gold currency. It takes a fairly organized state to maintain multiple currencies. Both the chinese and the byzantines had bureaucracies devoted to keeping the currencies in line. Otherwise, you have massive arbitrage opportunities resulting in people melting down coins and selling the metal for a profit if the true value of the two metals diverges from the declared exchange rate between the two coins.
Currency is just a mess and is generally best ignored except when the DM wants to make a story out of some element In the above example, I would have just said "you find chests full of coins of various eras and realms...a mixture of copper, silver, and gold totalling "x" value. The coinage must weigh about "y" in total.
Btw, I'd like to see the mint that makes the platinum coins.....
Besides, its a lot more fun to talk about having thousands of gold pieces than it is to talk about having thousands of copper pieces.
Which is exactly what Gary said in the old DMG, IIRC. The idea is the PCs should be gaining and losing fortunes regularly ala Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Conan, and similar fantasy heroes.
Only problem is that PCs hate the 'losing the fortune' part... :)
Well then you have a few choices. Increase the cost of goods, or reduce the amount of treasue the party finds. Also take the wieght issue into account which limits how much players can haul out of a dungeon. Also if merchants see that the player have a lot of gold they are going to charge more. Prices are never marked in my games and it all comes down to haggling to get the best price.
Again, the "economic system" of D&D isn't one. It is just a scorekeeping tally. Varying prices beyond a very limited, very story-based, point primarily achieves messing up that scorekeeping method and increasing the complexity and record keeping. Runaway inflation might seem like a good way to keep the PCs under control, but it will just increase the greed factor of the players in response, making them demand, and secure, more treasure, forcing an unending cycle of price increases until you need a tome of house ruled prices for your campaign that will just reset when you start a new campagn.
I'd rather just have the players killing stuff than calculating the loca exchange rate.
But, to really get into heresy:
I say there is a problem, and the solution is to eliminate copper and silver coins. Nobody except these totally irrelevant peasant NPCs ever really use them, and tagging a gratuitous "gratuity tax" of 1-10 gp/week onto players to cover such minor expenditures should be more than enough to cover the complete irrelevance that it is.
"How many copper did we give to those beggars? OK, then I've got 5,000 pp, 149,999 gp, 9 sp, and 2 cp left."
Great posts, esp. from dwarfromNyrond, Vomaerin, and callmeAndydammit. Nice to see that coins are so easily transportable (200 coins to the pound sounds fair) and fortunately most DMs (including me, if I actually had a game group) aren't too anal about how characters carry around all that loot-whether it be in sacks, chests or whatever.
It's little touches like that that strengthen the game both from a believability and metagame point of view-that players should not simply view copper and silver as "beneath them", the explanation being that gold is usually reserved for the nobility-believable in the setting, and also curbs inflation a little.
Besides, I like seeing players looking out for copper and silver too-while you can get rid of the tax-man, or pay off duties and tariffs with gems and platinum, you can't really buy firewood or pay for a drink in a bar with it without causing problems.
One real-life example was when I was in Quebec this summer and was partaking of that province's anniversary celebrations. I bought a Quebec flag from a street vendor who complained that everyone was giving him $20 bills, leaving him little money for change. I've also seen cashiers complain on www.customerssuck.com about people who come in at the start of a work day and pay for the smallest purchases with hundred-dollar bills, leaving them no change for anyone else.
As an ironic sidenote, apparently the U.S. minted $500, $1,000 and even $10,000 bills, with pictures of different presidents and statesmen on them. These would commonly be used by rich people, while middle-class and especially poor folk would have to normally pay with $1, $5, or $10 bills, with $20 being uncommon, and $100 exceptional. The highest denomination of bills I carry around in my wallet are normally $20 bills-for anything else, I just pay by Interac.
When adventurers are first level and don't even have enough spare gold to buy the non-magical plate armor that they want, I keep track of copper. As they advance and become less concerned, I just take off a flat rate per month and don't worry about it.
For walking around cities, I don't much worry about what the PC's are carrying. I do keep careful track of encumbrance when they visit distant dungeons, because I consider logistics to be one of the challenges that adventurers must face. YMMV. In one campaign, the players won against the fire giants in G3 and very quickly realized that there was no way they could carry out the jewelry, let alone the coins. The party had to split, with half guarding the horde and the other half returning to the nearest city. The mule wagon train they ended up using was, IIRC, about 30 mules in number, something like half of which were used to carry the food for the other half. Not something I would want to do in every adventure, but it represented the biggest horde they have found so far.
Also, the US does (or did) issue notes of larger than $100, but these are not used by "rich people". They go up to $100000, IIRC, and were actually used by banks to transfer money around the country in the days before computers and electronic transfers. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Money is the root of all evil and only leads players to want more and buy shiney things, but for what reason? what does an adventurer after he has paid his bills and bought a new warhammer need loads of money for. Like magic, money in my game is pretty hard to come buy and a rich character is normaly a well seasoned adventurer. Gold is rare and most goblins and orcs dream of owning a gold peice for themself. A handful of copper and a couple of silver makes Nobby the goblin well off. I like to think my players work hard for their treasure and then have to prove to me within reason they can carry out the goods safely and without bringing to much attention to themselves but word does travel...
(re Smaug's horde from the Hobbit look how much attention that drew on his death). Plus lots of coins make lots of noise. I normaly allow a certain amount of coinage the character can carry out depending on strength and containers and this is made clear to players when they are created how much realisticaly they can carry before it starts to become encumbering. Anal a little I guess but I enjoy the realism of the game set in a fantasy world. Still money is essential to the game and to much makes the game less of a challenge, players go round buying potions of this, that and the other. Get themselves all dosed up and off they go untouchable and as strong as giants blah blah blah blah. Well I power gamed when I was 12 I remember the millions , but things are differant many many years later and the focus of the game for me is more the campaign plot and the mystery of who what and why, not how much do we get then!
In my group, the characters are out and out greedy. They go out, hire wagons and go back and clean up the dragons hordes, copper, silver, gold and pretty rocks.
However, they are nearing a respectable level (12 to 14 in 3.5) and have developed a heroic reputation in the Barony of Hethiye, and something of a reputation throughout the Gran March. They are known for repelling an invasion, though it has made them numerous enemies. They are also known to the Baron and to the court and two acquired titles.
The result of this is that they have begun acquiring real estate (leave this to the imagination of the player, but I get to assign the maintinance fees) and minions, who cost money to support. The greediest of the group has a house in the small town they are from, a home in Shiboleth, and a townhome in Dorglast, Keoland. She also supports a troop of minstrels who feed her information throughout the region.
This level of detail takes some time, but I give the players a fairly free hand as long as they do not quibble about the amount of gold it costs. So far, we have been able to strike a nice balance of them feeling rewarded while I, as DM, get to use their details to provide hooks and depleat their grotesque wealth without complaint.
So, yes, they keep every copper. The party thief even keeps the non magical items. They have come to like the non-magic parts of the game so much that one character set up a business.
Regardless, the point is that the party wealth has not proven a problem or unbalancing. Though it is out of whack with the annual income of the peasants, IMO so is the spending of most of the nobility, and it is a game conceit.
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Well, at least that what common thieves believe. Gold, as in other campaigns, means that you at least deal with nobles or perhaps, you've stolen from them. Either way, using gold and telling commoners to "keep the change" places my pc's in suspicion. My players have learned that having gold can, under the right circumstances, get them into as much trouble as not having it. Granted it's not a "no-win" situation, but my pc's have learned the value of commoners gold (copper) and ferry wages (silver). Every now and then they catch a break and find ancient coins that have a higher gold composition, so their coins do run into being worth a 5:1 or 10:1.
Still money is essential to the game and to much makes the game less of a challenge, players go round buying potions of this, that and the other. Get themselves all dosed up and off they go untouchable and as strong as giants blah blah blah blah. Well I power gamed when I was 12 I remember the millions 
, but things are differant many many years later and the focus of the game for me is more the campaign plot and the mystery of who what and why, not how much do we get then!