Valuable Currency (3.5e Variant Rule)
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Valuable Currency
In an effort to make coin currency viable in a magical economy this variant makes valuable metals, well, valuable. If gold is to be a true standard in a magical economy players should not have to drop it hundreds of pounds at a time. This variant focuses on a PC driven economy instead of the basic workings of commoners who never get focused on anyway.
Converting Old Values
Anything with a given price in copper pieces retains its original price. A price given in silver gets reduced to 10%, gold reduced to 1% and platinum reduced to .1% the original value.
Thus a price in gold gets reduced to an equal amount of silver (50 gold is thus 50 silver). Silver, 50 silver to 5 silver or 5 silver to 50 copper. Prices are not normally given in platinum but if they are 1 platinum would become 10 silver or 10 platinum 1 gold or or 100 platinum 10 gold.
Edit:This currency doesn't work properly, wasn't well thought out in my opinion.
I thought it simpler when doing treasure hoards and buying things, and making economy easier to contain. In anything that give you worth in coins, whether it be items, art works, gems, mundane salvage, all the way to heaps of treasure chests...
I use this to stop them feeling overly rich... look in player handbook and look at some items, exchange the values for what I have written below, use the guide I give as a reference if needed.
1cp=1cp 10cp=10cp 100cp=1sp
1sp=1cp 10sp=10cp 100sp=1sp
1gp=1sp 10gp=10sp 100gp=1gp
1pp=1gp 10pp=10gp 100pp=1pp
This would mean Half Plate Armour(600gp in DnD3e PH) would be 60gp in the book. With Merchants selling for double the listed price, and buying for half. Half plate is 30gp to sell, and 120gp to buy. (1pp 20gp)
Dagger being 2gp will now be 2sp, in shops for 4sp and will buy off you for 1sp.
This means money is more precious, as a mug of ale in an inn is about 2cp. And a random treasure generator online gave me 1917sp, using this conversion DOES NOT change it to be 1917cp...
Online generator wasn't using the 100 coin conversion... 1917sp is 191gp 7sp which using this conversion makes 1gp 91sp 7cp
A big treasure trove when adventurers find that a single gold coin is 10,000cp.
For more reference, renting a lodge for a month is 150g, exchanged in this format is 1g 50sp which is about 15,000cp/150sp. Again, this makes money more valuable, and not something to be easily thrown about, and the chance to earn a single gold to a low level party seem like luxury.
Getting anything that is 100gp+ works like this: 100gp changes to 10pp, which then gets exchanged to 10gp.
Full plate being 1500gp in 3ePH would be converted by turning it into PP using the old way (every 10 currency turns to 1 higher currency) - meaning 1500gp is now 150pp, and then change down into the lower value, making it 150gp, then using the 100 to 1, making the 150gp turn into 1pp 50gp for full plate armour.
I hope this helps.
Coins
The most common coin is the gold piece (gp). A gold piece is worth 100 silver pieces. Each silver piece is worth 100 copper pieces (cp). In addition to copper, silver, and gold coins, there are also platinum pieces (pp), which are each worth 100 gp.
The standard coin weighs about a third of an ounce (fifty to the pound).
| Exchange Value | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CP | SP | GP | PP | |
| Copper piece (cp)= | 1 | 1/100 | 1/10,000 | 1/1,000,000 |
| Silver piece (sp)= | 100 | 1 | 1/100 | 1/10,000 |
| Gold piece (gp)= | 10,000 | 100 | 1 | 1/100 |
| Platinum piece (pp)= | 1,000,000 | 10,000 | 100 | 1 |
Wealth Other Than Coins
Merchants commonly exchange trade goods without using currency. As a means of comparison, some trade goods are detailed below.
| Cost | Item |
|---|---|
| 1 cp | One pound of wheat |
| 2 cp | One pound of flour, or one chicken |
| 10 cp | One pound of iron |
| 50 cp | One pound of tobacco |
| 1 sp | One pound of cinnamon, or one goat |
| 2 sp | One pound of ginger or pepper, or one sheep |
| 3 sp | One pig |
| 4 sp | One square yard of linen |
| 5 sp | One pound of salt |
| 50 sp | One square yard of silk, or one cow |
| 15 sp | One pound of saffron or cloves, or one ox |
| 50 gp | One pound of gold |
| 5,000 gp | One pound of platinum |
Selling Loot
In general, a character can sell something for half its listed price.
Trade goods are the exception to the half-price rule. A trade good, in this sense, is a valuable good that can be easily exchanged almost as if it were cash itself.
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