There's no official conversion or 100% correct answer. You could compare 50gp to the price of a pound of gold, but that's not very useful in my opinion since it doesn't reflect the purchasing power of gp as a currency. Comparing 8 hours of the US's average minimum wage ($7.25 according to Google) to the daily 2sp it takes to maintain a poor lifestyle (or hire an unskilled worker) yields a ratio of $2.9 per cp, $29 per sp or $290 per gp. That makes a silver piece roughly equivalent to a $20 bill.
There's no official conversion or 100% correct answer. You could compare 50gp to the price of a pound of gold, but that's not very useful in my opinion since it doesn't reflect the purchasing power of gp as a currency. Comparing 8 hours of the US's average minimum wage ($7.25 according to Google) to the daily 2sp it takes to maintain a poor lifestyle (or hire an unskilled worker) yields a ratio of $2.9 per cp, $29 per sp or $290 per gp. That makes a silver piece roughly equivalent to a $20 bill.
That makes some common items comically expensive. Even with modern minimum wage, 2 people can pool their money to live modestly. I think 58$ per gp is a better high estimate.
Like what? I doubt the relative costs of D&D's items perfectly mirrors the real world (and inaccuracies aside there's something to be said for the cost of manufacturing things in a pre-industrial vs post-industrial society), so I'm curious what you're using as your baseline. I used minimum wage and a poor lifestyle as the comparison point because they represent the floor for legitimate work wages and that seemed like the best all-around proxy for the standard of living.
Well plates and utensils would be about 60$ per person. A blanket to stay warm in winter would cost 140$.
Basic needs would cost way more than a days pay. And the poor living conditions even modernized more reflect the living conditiins of those unable to work full time than the average minimum wage earner.
I think our minimum wage would closer equate to 1gp per day.
This reminds me of an exchange where an NPC was hinting for some bribery. A player gave the NPC 10 gold for some simple information on where someone was going to be. The NPC enthusiastically gave the party very specific directions and immediately left the post to go drinking. The player said, "Taking a mental note: 10 gold pieces is too much."
In another situation with the same player, the player was trying to sell some party-branded merchandise. An NPC asked for the (starting pre-haggle) price of a patterned tunic. The player said, "1 gold piece." The NPC said, "That's outrageous!" The player said, "I DON'T KNOW THE EXCHANGE RATE!"
It might be better to not have a specific exchange rate. I'd say DM's choice. It's usually open to haggling, and it's not like there's a static world-wide standard anyway.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
While it’s a fun exercise, I don’t think you can really make a generalization, because incomes and cost of living varies so greatly from place to place, so one person’s “outrageously expensive” can be another person’s “sounds about right”
I’m in Seattle, where minimum wage is $15/hour, and a person making that still needs a roommate to make rent. Go outside city limits and the wage drop to about 11, the next state over, Idaho, I think is down around that 7 and change area. So any attempt at making a calculation would vary drastically in any of those places. I’d imagine a fantasy world would have similar issues — seems like rents in waterdeep would be higher, for example — but that would be a nightmare to reflect in game with lots of accounting tables no one would use.
I think that a copper is a $1, a silver is $10, and a gold is $100 is a manageable shorthand if your players need that frame of reference. Like others (like Xalthu) are saying, there's still a lot of flexibility for different communities to have different cost of living adjustments that make $1/$10/$100 more or less valuable.
Wait, with all this info, is a GP actual gold? Like is it made of gold?
Yes. That's why they're called "gold pieces." The game's language assumes high purity of currency, though if a particular DM happens to be familiar with numismatics, it might be fun to think about how adulterated coinage might be at any given time and what that means for the state of society.
You’re kind of going down a rabbit hole here. A fun one, but a rabbit hole, still. All money is really only worth what people believe it’s worth. Much like a commodity is worth what people are willing to pay for it. so we could do the math, and figure 10 gp=1pound figure out how much one weighs and compare it to the value of an ounce of gold on any given day to get the value of the metal. But if you want to figure out if the coinage process adds value, that’s going to be dependent on the country that’s minting it. Similar to how a US dollar has very different value from a Canadian dollar, Australian dollar or, for that matter a euro.
It will depend a lot on the relative strength of the economies of the various countries involved. Some would make the metal worth more, but some might actually reduce the value.
Before anyone goes too far in their calculations, per PHB it's 50 gp = 1 pound, or rather, 50 coins of any denomination to a pound. This is conveniently also the price of a pound of gold. As a side effect, this means that coins have uniform weight, meaning they are different sizes depending on the weight of the metal.
I did the calculation in a different thread a while back
I just did the math and based on a coin weighing 1/50 lb that makes the gold coin a bit larger than a penny, a silver coin a bit larger than a quarter, and a copper coin a bit smaller than a dollar coin. That means that 25 gp of silver is about the volume of 6 rolls of quarters. It could comfortably fit in a pouch, but I wouldn't want to carry enough for multiple castings.
(Also interesting, but significantly less relevant: at today's real-world prices, instead of 10 copper per silver and 10 silver per gold, the actual ratio would be 60 copper per silver and 80 silver per gold.)
I think the prices in the PHB are somewhat inflated like gold rush pricing. That makes it difficult to really draw a comparison to today's money.
Maybe is prusing labor is the best way to make the comparison? 1 SP is a day of unskilled labor so ~$100. That seems really high though.
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I just kind of wanted to know, how much are GP in US dollars?
D&D is a game for nerds... so I guess I'm one :p
There's no official conversion or 100% correct answer. You could compare 50gp to the price of a pound of gold, but that's not very useful in my opinion since it doesn't reflect the purchasing power of gp as a currency. Comparing 8 hours of the US's average minimum wage ($7.25 according to Google) to the daily 2sp it takes to maintain a poor lifestyle (or hire an unskilled worker) yields a ratio of $2.9 per cp, $29 per sp or $290 per gp. That makes a silver piece roughly equivalent to a $20 bill.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
That makes some common items comically expensive. Even with modern minimum wage, 2 people can pool their money to live modestly. I think 58$ per gp is a better high estimate.
I usually go for for a copper dollar ratio. Be $100 a day for modest living, $50 for a javelin, and $1,500 for a hand-crafted, balanced longsword
ok, that sounds appropriate! CP=1$
I know it doesn't seem to detailed but it's simple
D&D is a game for nerds... so I guess I'm one :p
My estimate put 1cp= 50¢. It doesnt really matter either way though since it is just a visualization tool.
And the comparative value of different equipment and services is way different than modern values, so it is hard to say.
I do know that symbolically, a cp represents a penny. Do with that what you will.
Like what? I doubt the relative costs of D&D's items perfectly mirrors the real world (and inaccuracies aside there's something to be said for the cost of manufacturing things in a pre-industrial vs post-industrial society), so I'm curious what you're using as your baseline. I used minimum wage and a poor lifestyle as the comparison point because they represent the floor for legitimate work wages and that seemed like the best all-around proxy for the standard of living.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
Well plates and utensils would be about 60$ per person. A blanket to stay warm in winter would cost 140$.
Basic needs would cost way more than a days pay. And the poor living conditions even modernized more reflect the living conditiins of those unable to work full time than the average minimum wage earner.
I think our minimum wage would closer equate to 1gp per day.
Currently, 1 ounce of gold = 1484 USD.
Per the PHB, one coin = 1/3 ounce (regardless of what it's made of).
1484/3 = 495 USD per gold coin.
This reminds me of an exchange where an NPC was hinting for some bribery. A player gave the NPC 10 gold for some simple information on where someone was going to be. The NPC enthusiastically gave the party very specific directions and immediately left the post to go drinking. The player said, "Taking a mental note: 10 gold pieces is too much."
In another situation with the same player, the player was trying to sell some party-branded merchandise. An NPC asked for the (starting pre-haggle) price of a patterned tunic. The player said, "1 gold piece." The NPC said, "That's outrageous!" The player said, "I DON'T KNOW THE EXCHANGE RATE!"
It might be better to not have a specific exchange rate. I'd say DM's choice. It's usually open to haggling, and it's not like there's a static world-wide standard anyway.
EDIT: Clarity
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
While it’s a fun exercise, I don’t think you can really make a generalization, because incomes and cost of living varies so greatly from place to place, so one person’s “outrageously expensive” can be another person’s “sounds about right”
I’m in Seattle, where minimum wage is $15/hour, and a person making that still needs a roommate to make rent. Go outside city limits and the wage drop to about 11, the next state over, Idaho, I think is down around that 7 and change area. So any attempt at making a calculation would vary drastically in any of those places.
I’d imagine a fantasy world would have similar issues — seems like rents in waterdeep would be higher, for example — but that would be a nightmare to reflect in game with lots of accounting tables no one would use.
I think that a copper is a $1, a silver is $10, and a gold is $100 is a manageable shorthand if your players need that frame of reference. Like others (like Xalthu) are saying, there's still a lot of flexibility for different communities to have different cost of living adjustments that make $1/$10/$100 more or less valuable.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Wait, with all this info, is a GP actual gold? Like is it made of gold?
D&D is a game for nerds... so I guess I'm one :p
Ditto. But then: rural areas would likely be much poorer than cities, so I'm good with approximating:
1cp= is roughly similar to $1 in rural areas, and 50¢ in cities.
Yes. That's why they're called "gold pieces." The game's language assumes high purity of currency, though if a particular DM happens to be familiar with numismatics, it might be fun to think about how adulterated coinage might be at any given time and what that means for the state of society.
So, it we need to consider that gold pieces are MADE OF GOLD, so whatever they cost to make it is worth more. Right?
D&D is a game for nerds... so I guess I'm one :p
You’re kind of going down a rabbit hole here. A fun one, but a rabbit hole, still.
All money is really only worth what people believe it’s worth. Much like a commodity is worth what people are willing to pay for it.
so we could do the math, and figure 10 gp=1pound figure out how much one weighs and compare it to the value of an ounce of gold on any given day to get the value of the metal.
But if you want to figure out if the coinage process adds value, that’s going to be dependent on the country that’s minting it. Similar to how a US dollar has very different value from a Canadian dollar, Australian dollar or, for that matter a euro.
It will depend a lot on the relative strength of the economies of the various countries involved. Some would make the metal worth more, but some might actually reduce the value.
This is getting way to complicated, and yes, now that I think about it, a rabbit hole.
D&D is a game for nerds... so I guess I'm one :p
Before anyone goes too far in their calculations, per PHB it's 50 gp = 1 pound, or rather, 50 coins of any denomination to a pound. This is conveniently also the price of a pound of gold. As a side effect, this means that coins have uniform weight, meaning they are different sizes depending on the weight of the metal.
I did the calculation in a different thread a while back