Coinage Conversions

Written by Adsmalley

As per notes in several spots within the Channel Cities and World of Ærnth articles (as well as the less visible articles for the other linked worlds of Sójaskar, Othorout and the TetraRealms that are only available to Registered GM's or Select Contributing GM's). I use the coinage system from Iron Crown Enterprises Rolemaster system, because they actually did fact checking,instead of putting faulty information to paper as was done for D&D (in more than just their coinage, as can also be seen with several creatures that do not follow the mythological descriptions (Rakshasas, Troglodytes just to name a couple off the top of my head).

In the D&D system (and many other d20 based systems, as well as other systems that followed the D&D faulty system), iron is worth a lot more than copper and slighty more than silver, while gold is almost worthless (making copper and silver actually worthless in game terms). This problem exists for a number of reasons. The first being that the conversion system that D&D used was a 1:10 valuation between each of the three coin types, with 100 copper per 10 silver per 1 gold. However, historically these ratios have typically been between 1:50 to 1:80 between silver and copper in value by mass; while gold to silver has historically been between 1:40 and 1:70 in value by mass. Secondly, due to them pulling values out of the air for things instead of actually looking at historical facts. And while many players of D&D and some other games, will blindly follow these poorly designed systems, I (and most Rolemaster fans) prefer to use an imersive system.

by 宮澤知之

by Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794 Bury, J. B. (John Bagnell), 1861-1927

Originally Rolemaster used a sytem with additional coin types so that they could use the 1:10 ratio that makes the math easy, using the following in order of value to be able to more easily (and much more accurately) represent true values of precious metals: iron, tin, copper, bronze (a copper and tin alloy), silver, gold and at the top end mithril (since they, unlike Gygax, who initially tried to use copywrited information and then got sued by Tolkien Enterprises for doing so and then was forced to "cease and desist" using copywrited portions of Middle Earth/Hobbit/Lord of the Rings information) actually contacted Tolkien Enterprises to secure a license to be able to use the Middle Earth setting.
Rolemaster has more recently decided to simply things further, with the newest version of of the game modifying thier base coinage system. But also providing explantations of how you can customize your own system to better mimic the feel of a true medieval (or other time period) society if you prefer.
I had previously used a system that had both Coins and Pieces of copper, silver and gold, with a rough conversion of 8 pieces (a coin cut into 8 pieces, or into a quarter (with a value of 2 pieces) or a half (with a value of 4 pieces)) to one coin of each type and then 10 coins (or at one point 12 coins) of each type to equal 1 piece of the next coin type up. This provided a 1:80 (or 1:96) difference in value, which much more closely represents actual values throughout most of Earth's recorded history. But this often did cause confusion for many players due to the math being a little more complex (especially for the 8 and 12 based system).
Some people also like to use Platinum as an alternative to Mithril, however one item to keep in mind is that Platinum could not even be refined until the modern age (as is also the case with several other metals, due to their atomic/molecular properties) as its melting point is so high that there was no way to refine or work it prior to the late Renaissance or early Victorian age (and then only when using Arsenic, which of course is toxic, so those who did work with it usually didn't live very long).

As such, I am now using the standard Rolemaster Unified system of using the following conversions, which not as accurate as I would like is at least closer than what is used in most fantasy RPG's, along with it being shifted an entire order of magnitude from the seriously flawed d20 systems. I will also on occasions in my games make mention of "quarter", "half" or "eights" to indicate that coins are still sometimes cut (as was actually quite common in past history)

RPG Systems/ Coin Type:	Rolemaster	d20 systems	HARP (High Adventure Role Playing)
	1 Copper	~2.5 silver	no equivalent
	1 Bronze	~ 2.5 gold	1 Copper
	1 Silver	~25 Gold	1 Silver
	1 Gold	~250 Gold	1 Gold

If anyone uses an RPG monitary system that is not listed here or that does not match what I have, please let me know so that we can work together to add your preferred system to this table for the sake of making this setting as complete and useful as possible.