Different currencies in different parts of the world

[Protato]

I was wondering, how would one handle each nation of a world having different currencies?

[JackPhoenix]

Pre-modern coins have value based on the weight of precious metal in them, not on our current custom of using inherently worthless currency backed by state reserve with different and changing exchange rates.

As long as the coins are the same size, they have the same value (and frankly, realism of things like gold piece from kingdom A having only 7/8 of value of a gold piece from kingdom B isn't worth the bother), though merchants may shun or favor certain currency for various reasons (their own interests, hostilities between kingdoms, even rumors that some kingdom's coins contain less precious metal)

[Protato]

Pre-modern coins have value based on the weight of precious metal in them, not on our current custom of using inherently worthless currency backed by state reserve with different and changing exchange rates.

As long as the coins are the same size, they have the same value (and frankly, realism of things like gold piece from kingdom A having only 7/8 of value of a gold piece from kingdom B isn't worth the bother), though merchants may shun or favor certain currency for various reasons (their own interests, hostilities between kingdoms, even rumors that some kingdom's coins contain less precious metal)

In the setting I'm writing (I might post more about it in the worldbuilding section once I have more written down), magic is well-known and more or less modernized a lot of things, including money. I figure that while it varies by nation to nation, most would use paper/cloth/hemp money, and either metal coins or no coins and just bills. Metal currency might exist but mostly would be exchanged for fiat money.

[Mellack]

Fiat currency is more about trust in government than "moderization." Note that the US did not stop gold-backed dollars until 1973. Most countries still had it until the 1930's. Before that, paper notes were basically receipts that could be traded for metals.

[Protato]

Fiat currency is more about trust in government than "moderization." Note that the US did not stop gold-backed dollars until 1973. Most countries still had it until the 1930's. Before that, paper notes were basically receipts that could be traded for metals.

Ah, fair, I didn't really know. In any event, I mainly want to know, how would I "game" different currency?

[Mellack]

Ah, fair, I didn't really know. In any event, I mainly want to know, how would I "game" different currency?

Assuming there is any semblance of regular trade, I expect it would be mostly a flavor thing. Merchants would likely weigh out various coins for purchases. Perhaps the players are expected to stop at a money changer and swap their money for local versions.

[Vogie]

Usually if your world has several different types of currencies, that means there is going to be a currency conversion industry. So if you have some currencies that are Fiat based, some currencies that are barter based, some currencies that are magic based, then there is also going to be some room in between all of that where your PCS could interact. Because as they are adventuring they're going in between the different types of Nations, you could have it as a game mechanic, or fluff, that they are going in between areas with different currencies, which have different valuations for things.

[Ventruenox]

They did some of that in 2E if I recall correctly. Unless it is important for the narrative (such as using foreign currency at the local tavern creating negative consequences), it will just be one more thing to keep track of and probably annoy players. Currency is either material value based or fiat. If you like keeping track of any conceivable fiddly bits, I got some GURPS books about bridges to sell ya.

[Mad Max]

There's an easy solution! Just use the game's already made currency system. For example, give one kingdom (Let's say Humantown) gold coins, and give another culture (Dwarfland) silver coins. That way you use the game's natural conversion rate, but keep players immersed. You could do fun cultural stuff too! For example, the kingdom of Elfstate, instead of using coinage, they use leaves from magical trees as soft currency, and they don't accept dwarf money, and vice/versa. For ease of play, maybe create some kind of (mostly) universally accepted currency (Who will say no to gold, after all?).

Hope that helps you!

[Lord Vukodlak]

I was wondering, how would one handle each nation of a world having different currencies?

A few factors to keep in mind is that without magical storage devices carrying around a large number of coins is not practical. For simplicity of book keeping most groups convert jewels and art objects to gold. But beyond book keeping the adventures would probably hold onto the gems until they're actually sold for something. Second a lot of the coins PC's tend to get in your standard campaign are from dungeons and ancient ruins.

For stuff like currencies and exchange rates you have to ask yourself, will this enrich and add immersion to my campaign setting or will it just add headaches and irritation.

For my own setting I decided to make gold a bit rarer.

But for simplicity I kept the acronyms.
Princes(PP) are gold coins
Genni Pieces(gp) are silver coins
Semi Pieces(sp) are are large bronze coins
Copper Pieces(cp) are small copper coins they don't get a special name

When you add new currencies to the world the question will always float back to how does this convert to gp. Having to track coins GP from three difficult countries is probably not going to make players happy. And if its all converted to the same GP then it doesn't matter does it?
Rather then make it the norm start with it as a plot point. Normally a gold coin is a gold coin no matter where you go owing to some ancient empire that standardized metallurgy currency centuries ago.

But then they come to some country where by the law of the land only The King's currency can be used for all transactions. Or after entering The Kingdom of X they put down some coins for room saw the Inn and find themselves under arrest as spies for using currency issued by the Kingdom of Y which is at war with X.


There's an easy solution! Just use the game's already made currency system. For example, give one kingdom (Let's say Humantown) gold coins, and give another culture (Dwarfland) silver coins. That way you use the game's natural conversion rate, but keep players immersed. You could do fun cultural stuff too! For example, the kingdom of Elfstate, instead of using coinage, they use leaves from magical trees as soft currency, and they don't accept dwarf money, and vice/versa. For ease of play, maybe create some kind of (mostly) universally accepted currency (Who will say no to gold, after all?).

Hope that helps you!

Okay so in Humantown where they use gold. How do they buy something with a value measured in copper like a pound of wheat, a bar or soap or a sack. Immersion for me was broken before I even finished reading the paragraph.

[Unoriginal]

Ah, fair, I didn't really know. In any event, I mainly want to know, how would I "game" different currency?

You wouldn't?

It's a flavor thing, not a game mechanism thing.

Just make a list of currency and write down the conversion rate between them. Ex: "ten gorodian dell bills are worth eight shoto bills, with a 20% commission when you change your currency."

[DeadMech]

How would I handle it? I wouldn't until I had a reason to. Because I'm lazy and at first glance it doesn't really add much fun to the game compared to the hassle. But maybe...

A player asking if the coins found in a dungeon untouched for 7000 years were any different from the ones they were paid for the bounty last week. Yeah, They probably are. These ones have a dwarven king on them instead of a human queen. Little thicker but they have a hole in the center. They used to transport them in stacks that were fastened by rods of various sizes for bulk purchases of various values.

Would I have them any more valuable than regular coins... probably not. Just giving them a different name and description has already created extra bookkeeping. I certainly didn't plan on them having a different value when I placed them in the loot drops so that's an issue best side skirted. I could probably pull an explanation out for why quickly.

If I suspected a group cared for the immersion of more complex monetary systems then maybe I could put some preparation into it. I mean I get more satisfaction out of inventory management and spreadsheets than is probably healthy. I used to play Eve Online afterall.

In which case to start I'd treat CP, SP, GP, and PP values as an average. The typical currency contains the right weight and purity of the respective materials plus or minus a few percentage points. Every country is probably minting their own variations. Some of them probably even issue new versions on occasion. When a new ruler comes around most often. Most of these countries aren't much bigger than city states and don't have their own gold mines so are probably just melting down other people's coinage after tax time and restamping or more likely recasting it as their own design out of hubris. The country characters are in will have their own currencies most common in the economy. Followed next by the neighbors friendly enough to engage in trade, followed by a peppering of other pieces. Coastal regions will have a higher variety. Land locked regions lesser. Lawful and Evil rulers are probably more prone to melting down currency then chaotic and good. For differing reasons. Plus of course a good handful of currencies from fallen empires and kingdoms found primarily in dungeons. These might vary in worth more or less according to weight and purity than current currencies. And they might have a collector price. Which I would give the players a percentage bonus on depending on how much work they put into finding collectors of rare coins. For instance dumping an entire dragon horde on a single collector would flood the market and they'd very little of the collector bonus percentage as a result. Perhaps every power of ten amount of coins drops the collector bonus a tier. 1-9 coins is 100% bonus. 10-99 is 50% bonus. So forth... If I'm really ambitious there might be different tiers of collectors. Poorer ones only want one of a given coin. Richer ones will want more before they stop giving a bonus.

In play mostly this comes down to me probably handing the party a list of various currencies when ever they get paid. I might ask for history checks or Insight checks depending on circumstances for the party to recognize coins that are off the standard purity that they aren't familiar with. A client might try to screw them once but once it's established the party is on the lookout for that sorta thing I'll stop. Merchants will pick out outlier purity coins they recognize and just use scales to measure more standard purity coins by weight for the most part. You can't use 20 low purity low weight coins to pay for something a merchant is asking 20GP for. "GP" is a game term I'm using as the DM to communicate to the players. Even all this I don't want to go full simulationist on a fantasy world economy. I could ask for 21.75 gold Richards in Richardistan which is equal to 20GP but that just means I'm pulling out my phone calculator too often.

Maybe there are quest hooks and complications to be thrown at a party. A country at war with another country might think you are a spy if you walk in and drop a load of their currency in their shops. Some isolated tribe of druids out somewhere wants organic trade goods only. The coin collecting prince of opulentown might send them off to a fetch a rumoured stash of coins that stopped being minted at the time of the dragon's world spanning empire's civil war.

[Unoriginal]

Also, the DMG has a section on this very topic (that is, currencies in one's campaign world), you might want to check it.

[Cespenar]

A pro-tip: if it's not directly relevant to the plot or general theme of the campaign, keep it as simple as possible*. If we're talking about an economical/political campaign, however, go ahead and detail as to your heart's content.

*Keeping it simple would be, as mentioned above by others: "Here they use this and this, instead of that and that. The commission is 20% to convert between them."

[smcmike]

Yeah it sounds like you are thinking too much about world-building instead of game-building. Do your players really care about currency exchange? No? Then use gold pieces or megabucks or dinars or whatever, but keep it simple.

One easy way to punch up the flavor without complicating the PHB currency is to say Kingdom X uses silver, Kingdom Y uses gold, mimicking the situation in the medieval Middle East.

[GlenSmash!]

Yeah I wouldn't find the currency exchange mini-game to be something I come to a D&D table for.

Still, merchants would care more about how much precious metal was in a coin regardless of where it was minted.

Viking paid in hacksilver after all.

[JoeJ]

Debasing currency was a thing in the ancient world too, so a "gold" coin from an overstretched empire might have more copper than gold in it, which would make it's value drop dramatically everywhere the emperor can't regulate its purchase value by law.

[JackPhoenix]

While in Eberron, there's only one currency (for reasons that actually make sense, as everyone (everyone who actually mints coins, that is) was part of the same kingdom a century ago, and even if the new kings and rulers put their faces on their coin, there's international mercantile organization with huge influence that does have interest in keeping the coins standardized), but in the introductory adventure in 3.5 book, you could find a sack of ancient coins. You could use them like normal coins, or sell them to a collector for double their normal value. You can also exchange your coins for letters of credit, with the banking house taking... I think 5% cut, but I don't remember the exact value, and can't be bothered to open the book now.

Admittedly, that's not really the case in most settings.

I also remember playing some old Lone Wolf gamebooks. There were different currencies, but conveniently, the maximum value of money you could have on you was the same: your pouch could hold 50 gold coins (standard currency), or 200 coins of 1/4 value. You could combine different types of coins, and while they were freely convertible, IIRC, sometimes you've got into trouble if you've tried to pay with wrong currency (like using your standard gold in a kingdom hostile to yours)

[Unoriginal]

While in Eberron, there's only one currency (for reasons that actually make sense, as everyone (everyone who actually mints coins, that is) was part of the same kingdom a century ago, and even if the new kings and rulers put their faces on their coin, there's international mercantile organization with huge influence that does have interest in keeping the coins standardized), but in the introductory adventure in 3.5 book, you could find a sack of ancient coins. You could use them like normal coins, or sell them to a collector for double their normal value.

Funnily enough, the 5e DMG explicitly says that most of the time if you pay for stuff using old coins found in ancient dungeons and the like, the people are just going to sell them to collectors later.







IIRC, sometimes you've got into trouble if you've tried to pay with wrong currency (like using your standard gold in a kingdom hostile to yours)

Lone Wolf: where even pocket change tries to kill you.

[Laserlight]

Why do you want different currencies? If it's for flavor, just decide what your usual currency is, then tell your players something like ”you found a jar full of coins, worth around 400 silver lunari. Most of them were the old solidi, with a few thalers and groats, but there were also half a dozen square coins with a hole in middle, that you don't recognize”.

[Mad Max]

Okay so in Humantown where they use gold. How do they buy something with a value measured in copper like a pound of wheat, a bar or soap or a sack. Immersion for me was broken before I even finished reading the paragraph.

I totally see where you're coming from. No matter what, you add a big layer of book keeping if you have different currencies (which have actually different values). I don't have an easy solution for it, but I can't think of a situation where a player would want to buy a single pound of wheat, one bar of soap or a leather sack, and you wouldn't just hand wave the cost. To each their own though, your group might be bigger on book keeping than mine.

[Armored Walrus]

In the evil Necromancer's realm all the magic-users are owned by the state. The currency there consists of wafer-thin slices of human femur, ensorcelled in batches to hold the eldritch mark of the Necromancer King, by the King himself whenever the state needs to raise money. Each wafer is backed by the casting of one cantrip in service to the bearer by one of the magi-slaves. No one may trade in other forms of currency, precious metal or gem within the realm - you must pay your gold for bones when you enter the realm of the Necromancer King.

On the other hand - those bones are, at best, worthless everywhere else in the world, and, at worst, a death sentence to own.

Edit: Just an idea to illustrate the thought of, what about magic-backed currencies?

[Knaight]

I totally see where you're coming from. No matter what, you add a big layer of book keeping if you have different currencies (which have actually different values). I don't have an easy solution for it, but I can't think of a situation where a player would want to buy a single pound of wheat, one bar of soap or a leather sack, and you wouldn't just hand wave the cost. To each their own though, your group might be bigger on book keeping than mine.

The book keeping isn't the point - I'm happy to gloss over money almost entirely. The problem is that in setting currency needs a certain liquidity, and if the smallest unit buys hundreds of pounds of wheat you have a problem.

That said, sufficiently small coins can pretty much handle it. The copper coin analog is still gold, but it's foil thin and has a small surface area, so it works just fine, and is probably traditionally kept in a special wooden tube or something.

[Tanarii]

Go check out dungeonomics on critical-hits.com. She's got some amazing (and entertaining) articles based around real-world currency, trade, etc.

[Lord Vukodlak]

I totally see where you're coming from. No matter what, you add a big layer of book keeping if you have different currencies (which have actually different values). I don't have an easy solution for it, but I can't think of a situation where a player would want to buy a single pound of wheat, one bar of soap or a leather sack, and you wouldn't just hand wave the cost. To each their own though, your group might be bigger on book keeping than mine.

I'm just picking examples out of the book for different cost items, and the point of this is to add immersion. Which falls off if you simply assign the different units to be used by different cultures.

In the end everything has to track back to GP, SP, and CP. Because everything you buy is going to be measured in one of those units. So if you must have a more the best way is to simply treat coins like gems and GP, SP, and CP are abstract concepts.

Silver Florins(from Florin) are worth 2sp instead of 1sp. Bronze Guilders from Guilder are worth 5cp instead of 1cp. A Quid is worth 7sp, a

__-Solidus=1PP
Argenteus=1GP
Nummus_=5SP
Radiate__=1SP
Laureate_=5CP
Denarius_=1CP
In this case I've taken names of real roman currency and assigned D&D cost equivalents to it. You could take other real country currencies and do the sa

Here's another example
Sovereign=10 Silver Crowns=1000 Copper Bits(10gp)
Guilders=5 Silver Crowns=500 Copper Bits(5gp)
Silver Crowns=100 Copper Bits(1 gp)
Half Crowns=50 Copper Bits(5sp)
Bronze Slips=5 Copper Bits(5cp)
Copper Bits=1(cp)

Again so long as everything easily translates into gp, sp and cp. You won't have a problem.