Gold Pieces, Encumbrance, and History

A few days ago, I came across an old Quora thread about DnD and encumbrance, and the fact that many people ignore it in 5E, especially coin weight. Someone in that thread compared GPs to modern 1 ounce gold bullion coins and suggested that 7,500 GP should weigh nearly 500 pounds. This really made me pause, as I had just returned from a trip to Greece and been to the Acropolis Museum, where, in addition to the many other incredible artifacts, they have a large collection of gold coins from the Byzantine era. And the thing is that most of them are quite small – around 17 mm in diameter, about the size of a dime.

The commenter in the Quora thread was making the mistake of comparing modern bullion coins like American Gold Eagles, which are specifically made for people wanting to invest in gold. They are intentionally 1 troy ounce for that purpose, and not meant to be currency. Even back in the 1920s when 1 ounce gold Double Eagles were currency, they had a face value of $20, essentially the equivalent of a $300-500 dollar bill. Smaller gold coinage was available in $10 eagles (1/2 ounce) and $5 Liberty Half Eagles (1/4 ounce = 8.4 grams). From 1849-1889, Gold Dollars were issued which weighed 1.672 grams of gold - 7,500 of those gold pieces would have been only a little more than 25 pounds.

This got me thinking about real gold coins in the medieval period, and how they compare the GPs. Now, DnD is, of course, not a historical simulation, and looking for historical accuracy in a fantasy game is silly, but I am a bit of a history buff, so I went down that rabbit hole. Disclaimer – I am not a professional historian or numismatist, and much of this is from Wikipedia level research, or some museum websites. It is far from a complete assessment and does not get much beyond a few major currencies of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

The PHB sets the weight of a GP at approximately 1/3 of an ounce, about 9.4 grams, because it works out to a nice round 50GP = 1 pound.

The gold coins in the Acropolis Museum were primarily from the Byzantine Empire, where the primary “gold piece” would have been the Solidus, which had a reputation for being a very stable unit of currency with a consistent gold content from when it was introduced in the 4 Century until the 11 Century, when emperors started to debase the gold content. It had a fairly consistent weight for 7 centuries of about 4.45 grams, about half the weight of a DND Gold Piece. The Solidus replaced the Aureus, or “gold denarius” which was the primary gold coin of the Roman Empire from the late 1 Century BCE until the 4 Century CE, and weighed about 8 grams, a little less than the GP. Further east, the Byzantine Solidus would become the inspiration for the Gold Dinar, first issued in Umayyad Caliphate and used fairly consistently from the 5 to 13 Century by various Islamic dynasties, from Islamic Spain to Central Asia. It weighed between 4.25 to 4.4 grams. The Solidus would also become the inspiration for the Zolotnik of the Kievan Rus’ and for a variety of gold coins of Western Europe.

Later, the Gold Ducat, introduced by Venice in the 13 Century, would be a primary trade currency up till the 19 century, along with the Florentine Florin, both about 3.5 grams. The Ducat would inspire the Ottoman Sultani. Across the Channel in England, the Noble was introduced by Edward the III in 1344 at an initial weight of about 8.8 grams, though it later stabilized at around 7.8 grams. The Gold Sovereign when first introduced by Henry VII was a whopping 15.6 grams, though Henry VIII would go on to debase the currency and reduce it to around 12 grams of 22K gold and subsequent monarchs down to 11 grams of 20K gold.

There were other currencies, especially in Northern and Eastern Europe, but this is a quick survey. Essentially, the weight of the DND GP is on the upper end, but within the normal range of gold coins used as currency throughout medieval Europe.

However, most smaller units of currency did not follow the simple decimal conversion of DND. The Byzantine Solidus was worth two Semisis, or 420 Folles, and a Folles was worth two half-folles, or 40 Nummi - and that is one of the easier systems. I think I prefer the simplicity of 1 GP = 10 SP = 100 CP.

Quote from RangerFalin >>

However, most smaller units of currency did not follow the simple decimal conversion of DND. The Byzantine Solidus was worth two Semisis, or 420 Folles, and a Folles was worth two half-folles, or 40 Nummi - and that is one of the easier systems. I think I prefer the simplicity of 1 GP = 10 SP = 100 CP.

 In most games, it's probably best to think of the coinage system as an abstraction, anyway. 

If I ever actually were to inflict a specific currency system on my players, I 'd definitely be basing it on the British system at its most byzantine.

Gold is fairly low in value in DnD. Some time ago i looked at medieval prices compared to DnD prices and it turns out medieval silver coins are worth roughly ten times what dnd gold is worth by weight.
But that's not a biggie. DnD isn't big on simulation anyway. And if you want a more historical experience, there are games for that. And even if you want to keep playing dnd you can just rename the coins.

Or alternatively you can consider the day-to-day coinage of D&D to be fiat currency, carrying value not from being x weight of precious metals, but because they're backed by national treasuries or somesuch.