From: seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: How many gp's = 1 pound?
Date: 13 Dec 92 16:20:02 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Originator: seawasp@unixd1.cis.pitt.edu

In article <1992Dec13.145006.26964@ugle.unit.no> brunborg@alkymi.unit.no (]dne Brunborg) writes:
>In article <19308.2b29f98b@ecs.umass.edu>, daly@ecs.umass.edu (Bryon Daly, ECE dept, UMass, Amherst) writes:
>> Well, like the title said, how many gold pieces are there to the pound?
>> I know in the original rules, it was 10 gp's/lb.  But then in my newly
>> acquired 2nd ed. DM's guide, it clearly states on p. 134 that all coins
>> weigh 50 to the pound (a better number IMHO).  OK, fine, but then ...

	[Hack, slash, delete many contradictions in various AD&Dx books...]

>> if a spell or psionic power states that it affects x gp's weight of 
>> material/level or something, which figure are they using?

>Only to add to the confusion, I think I read someplace that it's 20 gp/lb.
>I don't remember, but it might be in UA (MH).

	Here's what I do:

	1) Spells and things which affect Xgp weight (particularly in First
Edition, where your carry weight was in GP too) are using the 10:1 conversion.
Thus if you can lift 1,000 gp with a TK spell, you lift 100 lbs, not 20.

	2) Monetary standards: A standard does not NECESSARILY have to be
something used in everyday commerce, just something against which other
things are measured. In my case, I have a "gold standard" but only the
wealthy tend to throw around GOLD. You  can live fairly well (eat pretty
good food, have a room, get clothes and such) for about 3-4 gp a year.
Thus the normal worker gets paid in silver or copper or perhaps in barter.

	3) To make value conversions (in modern-day terms) easy for me,
I make one GP = 1 troy ounce. That's close enough to the regular ounce
for weight purposes, too, so that I divide #gp's by 15 and get pounds
(15 because the troy ounce is slightly heavier than the standard ounce).

	4) Again to make life easier, values of coins are on a decimal
scale: 1 Platinum=10GP=100SP=1,000 CP (lesser metals might be worth 
as much as copper, or go down to as little as 1/10 as much; magical or
exceedingly rare metals, like mithril, are still on a tens scale but
tend to skip (1 Mithril piece = 100 Platinum).

	5) buying power is higher on Zarathan than it is on Earth for
a comparable amount of cash; that is, if you can live fairly well for
4 GP, this is an Earth-equivalent of 4*400 = 1600 real dollars (assuming
400 $/ounce) giving you a standard of living equal  to a middle-class
income around $25-28,000 (one to two people, not a whole family). This
is in great part due to two factors: 1) hard support of currency; no
inflation of currency can occur easily, unlike here where printing
presses run off billions of dollars in a month. 2) Generally stable
society with outside pressures to keep it from stagnating. This means
that one copper piece, or a bit more, will keep you for a day. Inns
and such, of course, cost quite a bit more than that (as is true here --
if you stay at a pretty good hotel/motel and eat out, you'll probably pay
anywhere from 3-10 times as much as you do to stay home if you're 
middle class) -- especially since travel is less frequent than here,
and travellers tend to be richer...


				Sea Wasp