Just curious, working on something for a new campaign and wondered if anyone had bothered customizing how their currency and economy worked in any detail.
I went to the silver standard in my games. the most common coin is silver and takes the place of GP in most cases.
Reduce all prices from Gold to Silver except for magic or Alchemical items which remain priced in gold.
It brings the copper coin back into use and makes questing for magic items more likely than a trip to the local magic shop.
Of course I use a low magic world where even lowly +1 swords are named items and all magic items have a history.
Using the gold standard is fine.
However, you have to base the value of gold and 'work' on magic items, which are an absolute, fixed value.
In short, it's known that you can't convert more then 1000 gp value of anything into magic per day. This is an absolute and fixed constant of maximal value, that can be altered only with large and obvious use of feats, extra time, magic, etc.
Therefore, the ability to convert something into magic items is directly attributable to the value of gold. Silver takes ten times as much by volume to go into magic as gold...ergo, it's worth a tenth as much. The conversion rate of gems into gold has been observed and recorded, so even though tiger eye spinels might be rarer then rubies, rubies convert MUCH more easily into magic, and diamonds might be nearly as common as amethyst, but convert ten times more easily.
Now, you've established a breakline...500 gp/day for magic.
Now, break out the cost of LABOR from that conversion. Is a wizard processing a magic item worth 1000x more in labor then a craftsman making a suit of armor?
No, it's a day of time.
You can start altering prices based on scarcity and perceived value once you have a constant. The only constant in the game is the conversion of gold into magic.
I would, if you do this, not allow feats that allow the reduction of gold into magic item, because that allows any crafter with the feat to profit 125 gp/day, which is an insane amount of money (the usual feat is 25% less gold to make a magic item).
Note that this will change the cost of magic items.
Note that the current system says an item sells for twice the cost it does to make. If you do this, then the 'price to make' is a known given, and the extra 50% of cost is completely 'mark-up', and totally negotiable.
I advocate choosing a per-day rate for casters that reflects the same rate other crafters have working on skill-based stuff...Like 1 gp/level/day cumulative (level 5 = 15 gp/day, level 20 = 210 gp/day). An 18th level archmage making a magic item burns 500 gp/day like a level 5 hedge wizard, but he can invest that item with a level 18 caster level and mighty level 9 spells. His spells are VALUABLE, and so is his time.
The end result should still be 2x value (the more powerful wizards take a bigger cut of the whole price), but also assumes an item made with a higher caster level (a level 20 wizard making an item at level 5 shouldn't get any more for it then a level 5 wizard).
Caster level should have meaning in the process, and as the absolute in the game, should set the meter for anything else.
==Aelryinth