How much is a gold piece worth in $$$...

[Rubik]

...assuming the least amount of silver is alloyed with it to make usable coins?

I just checked (http://goldprice.org/), and gold was priced at just over $1,300 in US dollars per ounce. Given that a gold coin in 3.5 is, what, 1/3 of an ounce? That means pure gold would be $433.00.

How much silver would be the minimum needed to make usable coins, and how much would it cut the cost per coin?

I have an idea for a story, which involves real life, a man, some wishes, a 1st level character sheet, and exchanging starting gold for US dollars.

Any help is appreciated.

[Lightlawbliss]

might I recommend a google search. I have seen many discussions of this topic before.

[Barsoom]

An untrained hireling 1sp/day. In the western world, an unskilled worker typically brings home a minimum wage of $50/day, give or take. Based on that, 1sp=$50, or 1gp=$500.

[Hamste]

An untrained hireling 1sp/day. In the western world, an unskilled worker typically brings home a minimum wage of $50/day, give or take. Based on that, 1sp=$50, or 1gp=$500.

...so you are assuming that someone in medieval times got paid fair wages?

I think to get a better estimate someone needs to compare what people can buy for a gp to what people could buy in medieval times (A lot of hard work). There are several threads on this already so a good Google search will probably get a lot of results.

[Barsoom]

...so you are assuming that someone in medieval times got paid fair wages?What are those 'medieval times' that you speak of?

[BowStreetRunner]

It sounds to me like the OP is asking if someone today was able to get their hands on actual 'gold pieces', what would they be worth sold for the gold content. I don't think he is asking to convert D&D wages into today's currency based on inflation or anything like that.

[Snowbluff]

...so you are assuming that someone in medieval times got paid fair wages?

Why not? It's not like most workers are paid well. :smalltongue:

[cerin616]

The medieval english golden florin weighed about 7 grams of "pure" gold. So about 4 of them gives you 1 ounce of gold. so the average florin is worth a little over 300 dollars

thats not including any silver needed to make it coinable.

[Dark.Revenant]

Compare the price of copper/silver/gold coins to the price of a number of different things, such as: Beer, Labor, Land, Weapons

Depending on category the buying power will range from as little as 10 pounds for a gold piece to well over 1000 pounds.

[SowZ]

When we did this thread last time, we compared value of goods, value of time and labor, and then compared low class, middle class, upper class wealth levels to the same in ours. When we factored in all those things, the general consensus was somewhere between 80 and 200 dollars. Personally, I lean towards 100 dollars. Partly because it is super easy to calculate, but also because it was the most in line with class wealth levels.

The way 100 dollars was reached was this. Price of goods is tough to compare since people would need to spend a high percentage of their income to buy an item. So, instead, we took the middle class median incomes and lower class median incomes and upper class median incomes in the US.

The average for a middle class workman was about 45,000-50,000. A Middle Class craftsman, (someone with 4 ranks and a masterwork tool and an assistant,) can make about 9 gold a week. After paying off their assistant, that's about 416 gold a year. So, if gold is 100 dollars, that works. People on the upper end of middle class would likely have an ability bonus of 1 or 2, maybe skill focus and possibly level 2 or 3 so more ranks.

Then we did it with the lower class. Assuming the average poor person makes 4SP a day, (anyone making 1 or 2 being the very poorest-of-the-poor homeless,) that's 2 gold a week or 104 gold a year. If a gold is 100 dollars, about 13% of the US pop makes 10,400 a year or less.

[Zonugal]

I always figured it was something akin to 1 gp = $20, 1 sp = $2, 1 cp = $.02

[SowZ]

I always figured it was something akin to 1 gp = $20, 1 sp = $2, 1 cp = $.02

That's how a lot of people play it, but a gold is more valuable than that by the official rules. I often see DMs have a shopkeeper hand out 10 gold a piece for accomplishing trivial tasks and commoners betting 5 gold or more on an arm wrestling match. It always makes me question how these people can afford throwing around the equivalent of thousands of dollars so easily.

[Tvtyrant]

I believe the last discussion pegged it between $100 and $200?

[Rubik]

An untrained hireling 1sp/day. In the western world, an unskilled worker typically brings home a minimum wage of $50/day, give or take. Based on that, 1sp=$50, or 1gp=$500.This really has nothing to do with the thread, I'm afraid.


Compare the price of copper/silver/gold coins to the price of a number of different things, such as: Beer, Labor, Land, Weapons

Depending on category the buying power will range from as little as 10 pounds for a gold piece to well over 1000 pounds.This is beside the point, honestly. We can get salt for ludicrously cheap. That doesn't mean that such would be cheap at all "back then." Likewise, a number of today's inventions that are cheap and easily gotten (like, say, the polio vaccine) would be insanely pricey, if converted into coin back in the 1200s.

But none of that has anything to do with the gold value of a gold piece, or its conversion into modern currency.


When we did this thread last time, we compared value of goods, value of time and labor, and then compared low class, middle class, upper class wealth levels to the same in ours. When we factored in all those things, the general consensus was somewhere between 80 and 200 dollars. Personally, I lean towards 100 dollars. Partly because it is super easy to calculate, but also because it was the most in line with class wealth levels.

The way 100 dollars was reached was this. Price of goods is tough to compare since people would need to spend a high percentage of their income to buy an item. So, instead, we took the middle class median incomes and lower class median incomes and upper class median incomes in the US.

The average for a middle class workman was about 45,000-50,000. A Middle Class craftsman, (someone with 4 ranks and a masterwork tool and an assistant,) can make about 9 gold a week. After paying off their assistant, that's about 416 gold a year. So, if gold is 100 dollars, that works. People on the upper end of middle class would likely have an ability bonus of 1 or 2, maybe skill focus and possibly level 2 or 3 so more ranks.

Then we did it with the lower class. Assuming the average poor person makes 4SP a day, (anyone making 1 or 2 being the very poorest-of-the-poor homeless,) that's 2 gold a week or 104 gold a year. If a gold is 100 dollars, about 13% of the US pop makes 10,400 a year or less.Again, this has nothing to do with the thread.


It sounds to me like the OP is asking if someone today was able to get their hands on actual 'gold pieces', what would they be worth sold for the gold content. I don't think he is asking to convert D&D wages into today's currency based on inflation or anything like that.Exactly this. Think of it as suddenly importing a 1st level D&D character into the modern world, with 420 gold pieces on his person (minus the price of a sack to hold it). How much could he cash them in for?

Basically, if you had a coin that weighed 1/3 of an ounce of pure gold (plus just enough silver to keep it solid), how much money in US dollars would it be worth?

[Tvtyrant]

Basically, if you had a coin that weighed 1/3 of an ounce of pure gold (plus just enough silver to keep it solid), how much money in US dollars would it be worth?

I think it would be about $350 a coin. $400 for 1/3 ounce of pure gold, 50 less for being electrum. So about $14,700 total.

[SowZ]

This really has nothing to do with the thread, I'm afraid.

This is beside the point, honestly. We can get salt for ludicrously cheap. That doesn't mean that such would be cheap at all "back then." Likewise, a number of today's inventions that are cheap and easily gotten (like, say, the polio vaccine) would be insanely pricey, if converted into coin back in the 1200s.

But none of that has anything to do with the gold value of a gold piece, or its conversion into modern currency.

Again, this has nothing to do with the thread.

Exactly this. Think of it as suddenly importing a 1st level D&D character into the modern world, with 420 gold pieces on his person (minus the price of a sack to hold it). How much could he cash them in for?

Basically, if you had a coin that weighed 1/3 of an ounce of pure gold (plus just enough silver to keep it solid), how much money in US dollars would it be worth?

Oh, okay, I thought this was more about comparing the economies of the modern world vs. the D&D world. But your story will have a guy literally gaining D&D gold pieces. In that case...

D&D coins=1/3 of an ounce.

RL Copper=USD 0.20/ounce.
D&D Copper Coin=6 cents.
100 Copper Coins=1 Gold Coin
1 Gold Worth of D&D Copper=6 dollars

Don't get copper.

RL Silver=USD 20/ounce
D&D Silver Coins=6.4 USD
10 Silver Coins=1 Gold Coin
1 Gold Worth of Silver=64 dollars

Not that great...

RL Gold=USD 1300/ounce
D&D Gold Coin=434 dollars

That's assuming high quality metals.

[Rubik]

I think it would be about $350 a coin. $400 for 1/3 ounce of pure gold, 50 less for being electrum. So about $14,700 total.I think your decimal place is a bit off. With 420 gp and $350 per, that's $147,000.00, assuming the pricing for each coin is correct, and it looks to be about right, I think

Forget buying a masterwork chain shirt. I'm taking the money. Then I'm buying guns. Lots and lots of guns.

[cerin616]

going along with what i said about the florin, it was about half silver half gold.

So apply that rule to dnd gold, i would say its the same weight, and 1/6th an ounce of gold, 1/6th silver.

can always make coins smaller if needed

[Tvtyrant]

I think your decimal place is a bit off. With 420 gp and $350 per, that's $147,000.00, assuming this is correct, and it looks to be about right, I think

Forget buying a masterwork chain shirt. I'm taking the money. Then I'm buying guns. Lots and lots of guns.

Ooops, sorry. But yeah, I believe you are correct. Of course you would have to explain where all this gold came from...

[Madcrafter]

A little less I think, from all the silver. Back of the envelope time.

1/3 ounce -> 9.45g
Assuming 25% silver (the lowest content for historical coins I found with a quick google, electrum coinage seems to have gone out of fashion fairly early on)
7.0875g gold
2.3625g silver
And given gold and silver prices quoted from a few minutes ago:
Gold: 42.64USD/g
Silver: 637.52USD/kg
The price of a gp comes out to 303.72 USD, times 420 gives 127 562.40 dollars.

Still a significant chunk of change though. I'd take it.

EDIT: Oh, right, troy ounces, not regular ounces. Damn imperial system. And silver weighs different, not that it contributes much value to the final product.

[Lightlawbliss]

Ooops, sorry. But yeah, I believe you are correct. Of course you would have to explain where all this gold came from...

small shipwreck would do that easy

[Rubik]

Ooops, sorry. But yeah, I believe you are correct. Of course you would have to explain where all this gold came from...On "character creation" I'd just convert it all to USD.

For everyone's edification, the idea for the story goes as follows:

The story starts with a young man of modern America finding a nifty (but not at all expensive)-looking wooden ring. Turns out he gets the whole three wishes thing. Unfortunately for him, the genie in question, while rather helpful, has a few stipulations which kind of end up messing things up.

See, the way the wishes work is that the longer they go unused the stronger they are, and the genie's last master was not only an evil, paranoid bastard, but his wishes had a few millennia to gather strength, while our hero only had a few months. So one of his wishes is to basically become his own 1st level D&D character, with a character sheet and everything, and capable of leveling up, because he's good at optimizing the system, and it's his job (whether he wants it or not) to take down the genie's last master before he gets ganked for the ring. He tries for higher level, but the wishes are only so powerful.

He and the genie agree to a few starting rules, with the genie as his Dungeon Master (handing out XP according to the challenges he faces and everything; they have to abide by the rules, but they're generally interpreted in his favor).

In order to interact with "the rules," he has a H.U.D. where he can revise the sourcebooks, look up rules, and make choices and changes when necessary, and he receives messages like how much XP he receives when he does something worth gaining it.

The second wish is for a psychoactive skin of proteus, for Metamorphosis (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/metamorphosis.htm) at will, but since the wishes are weak, the best he can manage is one at manifester level 2, but which scales up as he levels.

The third wish protects him from being found by the BBEG or his minions until he's ready to take them on (basically forcing a sorting algorithm of evil (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SortingAlgorithmOfEvil) to keep him from getting splattered early on).

Because it's a "one player campaign," he gets a high point-buy and gestalt. In addition, optimizing is encouraged (so long as he doesn't touch Pun Pun, which is out), and disputed rulings are generally ruled in his favor.

His build is as follows:

Side 1 is shaper psion 20. Side 2 is martial monk 2/factotum 3/PrC [possibly chameleon] 2/illithid savant 10, legacy champion 3 (advancing illithid savant).

Those first two monk feats will be Infinite Deflection and Extraordinary Deflection, to protect him from guns, since that's the primary thing he'll have to worry about at lower levels.

[edit] Oh, and the genie hands out WBL on each level-up, starting at 1st. He gets 120 gp start out as a level 1 psion, but the Mercantile Background feat grants him +300 gp starting out. That's where the 420 gp (or $147,000) come from.I thought it was a rather fun idea for a scaling superhero story.

[Arcanist]

An untrained hireling 1sp/day. In the western world, an unskilled worker typically brings home a minimum wage of $50/day, give or take. Based on that, 1sp=$50, or 1gp=$500.

In this economy? :smallconfused:

[Jack_Simth]

Exactly this. Think of it as suddenly importing a 1st level D&D character into the modern world, with 420 gold pieces on his person (minus the price of a sack to hold it). How much could he cash them in for?

Basically, if you had a coin that weighed 1/3 of an ounce of pure gold (plus just enough silver to keep it solid), how much money in US dollars would it be worth?

Oh. Then you're looking at basic math. Coins have a defined weight (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/wealthAndMoney.htm#coins) (50 per pound). The Cost of Gold Changes (http://goldprice.org/), but is apparently $1328.01 per troy ounce at the moment. 12 troy ounces to a pound, so that 420 gold coins (8.4 pounds) is 100.8 ounces. Multiply that by the value, and you get $133,863.40 (or enough to almost finish off the mortgage on my house)... assuming you somehow manage to get fair market value (most places have some amount of a commission, you see...). If you locate a collector, however, all bets are off, as the stamping on the coins will make them more valuable than the metal they're made of.

Edit: Of course, if he's a psion, he might consider taking on the James Randi Foundation's challenge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Randi_Educational_Foundation) for pocket money.

[Yogibear41]

IDK about other campaign settings, but in general the commoners in the game I play probably live off of around a gold piece a month, maybe less.

[Frosty]

It also depends on the scarcity of gold and silver in your campaign world compared to the real world.

[EyethatBinds]

I always assumed that a majority of D&D worlds had far more gold than our planet. It would explain dragon hordes.

[crazyhedgewizrd]

does it say anywhere how pure the coins are? most gold is a alloy of gold, silver and copper.

[Jack_Simth]

does it say anywhere how pure the coins are? most gold is a alloy of gold, silver and copper.
Not that I know of, no.

[cerin616]

Oh. Then you're looking at basic math. Coins have a defined weight (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/wealthAndMoney.htm#coins) (50 per pound). The Cost of Gold Changes (http://goldprice.org/), but is apparently $1328.01 per troy ounce at the moment. 12 troy ounces to a pound, so that 420 gold coins (8.4 pounds) is 100.8 ounces. Multiply that by the value, and you get $133,863.40 (or enough to almost finish off the mortgage on my house)... assuming you somehow manage to get fair market value (most places have some amount of a commission, you see...). If you locate a collector, however, all bets are off, as the stamping on the coins will make them more valuable than the metal they're made of.

Edit: Of course, if he's a psion, he might consider taking on the James Randi Foundation's challenge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Randi_Educational_Foundation) for pocket money.

And seeing as DnD gold doesnt exist, tis a gamble on if that makes them more valuable, or only valuable as gold.

and no, it doesnt mention purity, but I would guess they are 100% pure and then reinforced with magic or somesuch.

[Der_DWSage]

There's also the thought of keeping a few coins separate, and selling them later to individual coin collectors for more than you would otherwise get.

However, this runs its own issues-convincing them it's legitimate, and suchlike. Overall, the comparison to Florins seems the best one so far.

[Maginomicon]

WotC put out an official answer to this question. Seriously, what's so wrong with using this for whenever this question comes up? (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ask/20061110a)

(This is at least the 3rd time I've posted this link to this kind of question thread, and the other times it was completely glossed-over, so pardon me if my words denote frustration) :smallfurious:

[Tvtyrant]

WotC put out an official answer to this question. Seriously, what's so wrong with using this for whenever this question comes up? (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ask/20061110a)

(This is at least the 3rd time I've posted this link to this kind of question thread, and the other times it was completely glossed-over, so pardon me if my words denote frustration) :smallfurious:

Because it has nothing to do with this thread? He asked how much the gold coins would be worth if brought to the modern world, not the equivalency rate of our currency.

Thank you for posting it though. It matches about where I pegged gold pieces before.

[ericp65]

Is it not written somewhere in core that 10 gold pieces weigh one lb?

[Krobar]

Per the PHB (and SRD) there are 50 gold pieces in a pound, making each weigh about 1/3 ounce. Gold is currently trading at about $1328 per troy ounce, per MONEX.

http://www.monex.com/

Now, I'm going to assume that the writers of the D&D books were going with the simple Avoirdupois pounds (16 ounces per pound) that everyone is familiar with, rather than the Troy system (A Troy pound is 12 Troy ounces) which is really only used for measuring coinage these days and most people are not familiar with it - they've just heard the name. Otherwise, 50 gold pieces in a pound would not be 1/3 of an ounce, they'd be about 1/4 of an ounce each.

Based on $1328/ounce, using the 1/3 ounce weight given in the PHB and SRD, a GP would be worth about $442.66.

Or, if you want to be more precise ... a Troy ounce = 1.09 ounces. Therefore 1/3 ounce = .304 Troy Ounces, for a value of $403.71.


edited: but these values will be different tomorrow.

As far as how much of an alloying metal is added in to make the coin durable, it's usually around 8 or 9% if I recall correctly. But that doesn't diminish the value of the coin - they still use the same amount of precious metal.

[ericgrau]

...assuming the least amount of silver is alloyed with it to make usable coins?

I just checked (http://goldprice.org/), and gold was priced at just over $1,300 in US dollars per ounce. Given that a gold coin in 3.5 is, what, 1/3 of an ounce? That means pure gold would be $433.00 for pure gold.

How much silver would be the minimum needed to make usable coins, and how much would it cut the cost per coin?

I have an idea for a story, which involves real life, a man, some wishes, a 1st level character sheet, and exchanging starting gold for US dollars.

Any help is appreciated.
Ya like others I had to read this twice to realize it is not an old topic. You are correct. However note gold uses troy ounces. Each D&D coin weighs 0.29 troy ounces. So around $375 a pop give or take.

D&D uses the same weight for other coins. A platinum or silver coin also weighs 0.29 troy ounces. Copper doesn't use troy ounces so each coin is 0.32 regular ounces or 0.02 pounds, since copper is often valued by the pound. Shops might charge 1% or more to convert.

This does mean that gold and platinum coins are rather small, like pennies or a little larger, but twice as heavy. Copper and silver are twice as large by volume, around the size of quarters.