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Economic Changes

Throughout the Dark Ages (indeed, from Antiquity until relatively modern times), the primary and often only hard specie was silver coin. Some gold coins did exist, but these were largely minted during the time of the Roman Empire and has been melted down and repurposed for jewelry and other artful objects. Some places did print copper coins, but these were not commonly circulated. Therefore, unless otherwise noted, all coins are silver pennies (commonly called pence). Larger quantities of coins were typically measured by weight. During this period, the pound and shilling were set at 240 pence and 12 pence respectively. This means there were 20 shillings in a pound and 12 pence in a shilling. It's impossible to accurately correlate the value of pence to the fantasy gold, silver, and copper coins of D&D. Rather than attempt to revalue everything available for purchase, the following conversions will be used. Here, historical accuracy has given way to ease of use. Treasure will be handed out in Shillings, Pence, and Farthings and these will correspond directly to gold, silver, and copper pieces. These are not, however, physically different coins. Rather they are short-hand used to describe an amount of coins.