Alternate Dungeon Fantasy Currency

[Kalzazz]

Copper .1, silver 1, gold 10, plat 100, Orichalcum 10,000 other items as assigned/remembered
Quarter Quarter x1/16
Quarter x1/4
Coin x1
Nugget x10
Bar x100
Pound x250
K-Bar x1000
Stone x5000

Coins are, in theory, 1/16th of an oz (non troy oz, so 16 to a lb), so 256/coins to a pound, but due to rounding 250 to a pound

Theres also Elemental currency of the 5 true elements (Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Air)
Kernel worth 100
Coin worth 1000

Theres also 'Elvish Silver Certificates' (ESC) which elves use since they dont like metal coins, and are green living plant stuff and marked with amounts of silver they are worth. In theory you can trade them in somewhere for actual silver

[Dwarf99]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Orichalcum 10,000

I like to say that since Orichalcum is more or less Essential bronze, that makes it worth ~1875/lb. or $18 per coin.

[Kalzazz]

Orichalcum coins were worth (and potentially still are worth) 10,000 in Earthdawn, which is where part of the money system got stolen from (also where 1 silver = 1 baseline money comes from)

This has the mild idiosyncrasy that a many many pound shield made of orichalcum is worth less than 1 coin of it, but oh well

[woodchuck]

Originally Posted by Kenneth Latrans

I don't have a catchy name for the gold pieces yet.

"Bird" because there's a picture of bird on the coins, "Talon" because the all the birds are raptors and therefore have talons or "Raptor" would work too.

[Dustin]

I've mostly run Hellenistic DF-style games for awhile, with drachmae standing in for GURPS $. When coin denominations come up (which isn't often), I use a copper or bronze chalkoi for small change (approx 2 cents), a tiny silver obol ($1/6), a chunky silver tetradrachm ($4), and a small gold stater ($20).

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by Kenneth Latrans

My usual monetary units are a copper coin the size of a U.S. quarter dollar being $1, a silver coin the size of a penny being $5, and a gold coin the size of a dime being $100. The copper coin is called a "Buck" because it has the image of a buck stamped on it (a buck of what animal varies from city state to city state), the silver coin is called a "Finn" because if has something with a fin on it (often a dolphin, sometimes a shark, sometimes something else). I don't have a catchy name for the gold pieces yet.

Benjamin's! (baby)

[Varyon]

I think I've posted it before, but here's the coinage system I made for DF. I'm fairly confident it wouldn't survive contact with the players, however.

There are three primary metals used - copper at $120/lb, silver at $1200/lb, and gold at $36,000/lb. Due to gold's softness and high value, it's always alloyed, as igneum (30% gold, 70% silver), electrum (50% gold, 50% silver), or crown gold (90% gold, 10% silver). There are also three sizes of coins - the penny (about the size of a US penny), bit (US quarter), and groat (a double-thickness US half-dollar); a groat is typically worth around twice a bit, a bit about twice a penny.

A Farthing (considering changing it to Fithing or similar) is a copper penny and $1. A Half Denari (typically just called a "Half") is a copper bit and $2.5. A Denari is a copper groat and $5. A Lad is a silver penny and $15. A Squire is a silver bit and $30. A Knight is a silver groat and $60. A Lady is an igneum penny and $120. A Prince can be an igneum bit or electrum penny and is $300. A Queen can be an igneum groat, electrum bit, or crown penny and is $600. A King can be an electrum groat or crown bit and is $1200. An Emperor is a crown groat and is $3000.

...

Now, for something not of my creation, the Stormlight Archives series uses precious gemstones enclosed in glass spheres for currency. These stones can be charged with stormlight (mana), generating light, and can use this stormlight to transmute one material into another - wood into metal, stone into wheat, that sort of thing. There are 10 types, each of which is capable of creating a different substance (starting material doesn't seem to much matter), and valued based on what it can create - diamond, which produces glass and similar, is the least valuable, while emerald, which produces plant matter and thus food grain, is the most valuable. They can also be used for other things, like sapphires in protective magics. The author hasn't revealed the exchange rates for most of the gems, unfortunately. There are three denominations, and they appear to scale based directly on mass (rather than following the mass-squared rule of typical gems) - a Chip is a the smallest and barely glows, a Mark is worth 5 chips and when fully charged produces about 1 candela of light, and a Broam is worth 4 marks (20 chips) and glows with the light of "several candles" (which I interpret as around 4 candela). Diamonds are the cheapest and a diamond chip would be $1 in GURPS (it's stated to be enough to buy a loaf of bread). Garnet chips are $5, Sapphire chips are $25, and Emerald chips are $50 (thus denominations scale from $1 for a diamond chip to $1000 for an emerald broam). The other stones are smokestone (probably grayish), ruby, zircon, topaz, amethyst, and heliodor. Personally, I'd estimate their worth as going in the following order - Diamond (glass), Garnet (blood/aqueous liquids) Smokestone (vapor - makes opaque gases), Ruby (fire), Zircon (oils/non-aqueous liquids), Sapphire (translucent gas), Topaz (stone), Amethyst (metal), Heliodor (meat), and Emerald (plant matter).

[Crakkerjakk]

I just do two sizes of coin for gold and silver (pennies and marks), one size for copper. Then larger bullion (talents) for each. Not too crazy, but a little variety.

Then for treasure hoards I have a bunch of whacko ancient coinage for descriptive purposes, but just give them a cost and weight when it comes to hauling it off and turning it into something spendable.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by woodchuck

"Bird" because there's a picture of bird on the coins, "Talon" because the all the birds are raptors and therefore have talons or "Raptor" would work too.

I vote for bird!

Evidently the characters in this campaign can already declare "I pay him 20 bucks" and still be using valid, world-appropriate lingo; this will allow them to declare "I flip him the bird", too.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Here is mine:


Treasure, Coins, and my GURPS DF game

If I did it again, I'd keep the same values but make it 50 coins to the pound, to make big treasures more of a transport issue. Otherwise, it works fine, and I can use all of the pricing in the books without modification.

We speak in silver pieces ($1 in my game) at the table, so I guess it stuck. No one says, "It's 3000 dollars" but they instead say "3000 silver."