Higher denomination coins

[SmiloDan]

Hi!

I might want to introduce higher denomination coins into my 5th Edition campaign. I doubt there will be a lot of them, but they might actually work for fluff, flavor, and McGuffins.

1 mithril piece = 100 gp.
1 adamantine piece = 1000 gp.

Is 1 pound of mithril worth 500 gp?
Is 1 pound of adamantine worth 5000 gp?

I actually want an NPC to steal a quote from The Liars Key:

The NPC asks the PC: "Do you want this coin or the best advice I've ever had?"

"Always take the money," is the advice if the coin isn't selected.

[BLloyd607502]

Personally I have my characters carry gemstones as well as coins, of varying values.
One country might be at war with another and decide that they're going to put a 'visit' on anyone that is spending coins from that country, but a 10 Karat Emerald is always worth 10 Karats of Emerald, give or take the greed of the Jeweler.

[Scrapper]

Could also use Trade Bars, usually a bar of precious metal that has been stamped with the seal of a recognized nation or trade house that has a agreed upon trade value recognized by most parties(other trade houses/nations)

[Lorathorn]

One thing that I might suggest is having specially minted coins. They can either be so old as to be especially valuable, perhaps commanding variable profit through auction, or have coins that are minted with gems in them. Such coins do have the baggage of potentially being attached to a kingdom (though they might be the trade standard for an neutral merchant alliance, perhaps?). I remember Palladium Fantasy having something similar for some old Dragon Kingdom coins that were worth their equivalent of 10,000 gold, or something along those lines.

[SmiloDan]

My campaign is actually taking place in a multi-continent Commonwealth, and one of the "silly puns" of the campaign is that the Commonwealth regulates both language and currency throughout its member states. So that explains the Common language and the standardized currency throughout the Commonwealth.

It's also an excuse to not worry about different currencies between countries, cultures, and continents.

The one thing I really hate doing is keeping track of all the minutia of monetary bookkeeping. I hope this helps to alleviate it at least a little bit.

There might be exotic currency from before the establishment of the Commonwealth, but it will be very rare. More of an archaeological curiosity than a monetary treasure.