The standard coin weighs about a third of an ounce (50 to the pound).
How much does 5000 gold weigh?
With Cheapy's statement, it would be about 100 pounds.
You know what that means; time for a Bag of Holding for all dat cash.
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Convert it into highly paid mercenaries (5 sp a day) and it's the equivalent of 20,000 lbs of man and steel for 100 days and a 100 men.
I thought it would be much higher. I guess I always saw the gold coins in fantasy as being roughly the size of a silver dollar. Which weighs 1 oz. so I figured it would be more like ~300 lbs.
I highly doubt that coin minting is standardized is any fantasy setting, so gold coins could range anywhere from the size of a silver dollar (mentioned), to a shirt button. For the sake of ease, it's averaged out.
Just so you have a rules reference:
The standard coin weighs about a third of an ounce (50 to the pound).
- Gauss
Artanthos:
In general, coins got bigger as time went on. Old coins tend to be smaller than more modern coins. It all depends on the era. 3.X set a value of 50coins to the pound (obviously choosing smaller coins) and PF has stuck with that.
- Gauss
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Do keep in mind that "gold piece" in most RPGs, including Pathfinder, is a unit of value, not unit of currency. Since historically precious metal coins derived their value from the value of the metal itself (for most part), debate on the weight of an actual gold coin is moot - Osirian Gold Scarab may be worth 3gp, while Ustalavic Gold Bit may be worth 1/2gp, with former most likely weighing about 6 times more than the latter.
The rule of 50gp/lb is what gives you value of gold - a pound of gold is worth 50gp. That may turn out to be roughly 17 Osirian Scarabs, or 100 Ustalavic Bits, but in the end value originates from the mass of gold, not the imprint or origin of the coin itself. Likewise, in Osirion a merchant may name price for a 30gold dagger as 10 Scarabs, while in Ustalav innkeep will expect one Bit for a 5sp/night room and dinner.
* In real world, various precious metal coins' values were affected by origins as well, mainly due to the fact some states may have been minting less than pure coins; for example Byzantine gold coins, solidi, were valued for being purer in gold than others; in fact, they contributed to the fairly widespread use of term Bezant in medieval Europe for any gold coin, particularly foreign ones. On the other end, german Rheingulden's gold content kept dropping (from original 98% gold to as low as 77%) which no doubt meant that same weight of Rheinguldens was commonly valued lower than Byzantine Solidi.
** Additionally, value of various gold coins was affected by exchange rates - it was common for local merchants and folk in a town or state to accept preferably or exclusively local coinage; a merchant or traveler from afar with foreign currency had to go to a banker to exchange it. At that point, value of his gold became affected by banker's provision rate, as well as relations between the country issuing the coin and locals, etc etc.
Ahhh yes, the fun of Kings debasing their currency. I much prefer a D&Ds non-realistic approach for simplicity. Frankly, I think it can go even farther towards being simple. But that is another discussion.
- Gauss
Just a fun fact,
1 cubic foot of gold weighs 1205 U.S. pounds.
So good look stealing that chest full of gold!
We always played 50 coins to a pound.
5,000 coins would be 100 lbs.
Meh, I usually ignore coin weight. Otherwise people start exchanging their gold into gems all the time, which just adds another layer of confusion.
Sure if they find a chest full of gold that may be different, but talking about their coin purse.
Yes, but how many moles of gold are there in a mole of gold?
Meh, I usually ignore coin weight. Otherwise people start exchanging their gold into gems all the time, which just adds another layer of confusion.
Sure if they find a chest full of gold that may be different, but talking about their coin purse.
I can see why that might be a problem. I have trouble getting change for a $20. Imagine trying to get change to pay your bar tab when your gem costs more than the whole bar.
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Yall may or may not be interested in this bit of math.
If you make a coin 2mm thick that weighs 1/50 lbs, you'll get the following:
- 1 cp has a diameter of 25.4 mm
- 1 sp has a diameter of 23.5 mm
- 1 gp has a diameter of 17.3 mm
- 1 pp has a diameter of 16.4 mm
For comparison, a US quarter has a thickness of 1.75 mm and a diameter of 24.3 mm. A US dime has a thickness of 1.35 mm and a diameter of 17.9 mm.
I was toying with the idea of making coins in my game perfect cubes or spheres or something so that you needed a wizard or maybe a dwarf to mint coins and not just everyone could do it. But the value is still based on the weight of the metal, so a identify purity cantrip would probably be a better investment long term.
And if those gold coins where pure, the value of those 100lb would be, today, a bit more than 1,800,000$.
There might be some Gygaxium in those coins.
Yes ... but you could get meeelleeeeooonnnss of gp in a single hoard! *grin*
Then you had to hire carts, porters, drivers and the attendant beasts to haul out all the loot.
Just to deal with the copper and silver.
That was fun way back when! ^_____^
Yes, but how many moles of gold are there in a mole of gold?
Worth your weight in gold is pretty good these days.
Exiting fantasy for a moment: Which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?
Worth your weight in gold is pretty good these days.
Exiting fantasy for a moment: Which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?
A bit of a trick question really as your unit of measurement is semi ambiguous.
Feathers using imperial weight, are 16 ounces to the pound. Gold measured using troy weights is 12 ounces to the pound.
So depending on the unit of measurement a pound of feathers is in fact heavier than a pound of gold.
5000 gold coins weigh about 45.4 kg (~9 g a coin).
ps: Sry, but at least someone had to promote sensible (i.e. non-imperial) units :P
And if the inventors of that scale had come up with a sensible way of creating it, I would agree.
Official definition of a meter: The meter is defined to be the distance light travels through a vacuum in exactly 1/299792458 seconds.
My stopwatch doesn't react that quick. And that certainly isn't how the original inventors measured it.
Yeah, you should use something sensible like the inch (defined as the length of three barleycorns) or the pound (defined as the weight of 7000 grain seeds from the middle of an ear of barley).
Coin making in a fantasy realm with magical spells and powers would likely be highly uniform and probably include special anti-counterfeiting techniques.
Magic has its uses. And kings hire court wizards for a reason.
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I highly doubt that coin minting is standardized is any fantasy setting, so gold coins could range anywhere from the size of a silver dollar (mentioned), to a shirt button. For the sake of ease, it's averaged out.
Abadar, or any deity of civilization, would have a stake in standardizing money transactions. A church can bring a lot of power to bear against a country. Try to go your own way and your money is not accepted elsewhere.
I assume that all money is minted under the watchful eye of Abadar's priests. Market days would be opened by a priest of Abadar blessing the transactions. He would keep a watchful eye on transactions and be available for any disputes.
So, my assumption is that the church of Abadar has come up with a standardization of all legal tender coinage. Must be of X size, weighing Y ounces, with Z% and A% composition. Stamp it how you want as long as it conforms to these standard designations.
Anyway that is how I run it. Gets past that whole nasty exchange rate issue.