Re: The GZG Digest V2 #1289

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>Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2002 10:46:23 -0700 (PDT)
>From: John Atkinson <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com>
>Subject: Re: [OT] GenCon (was Re: GenCon Plans Anyone?)
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>- --- Allan Goodall <agoodall@att.net> wrote:
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>>>no perspective (someone had a character that was
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>>carrying around 10,000 
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>>>gold pieces
>>>who didn't have the slightest idea of it's weight
>>>
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>Most "modern" gamers use the "gp" the same way the
>book says to: it's a money of account, used to keep
>track of large sums.  Actually it would be in a
>variety of forms, dependant on the actual setting. 
>Frequently, gems.
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When I said gold pieces I mean gold pieces. In our games we had
pp - platinum pieces (very rare),
gp - gold pieces (rare)
sp - silver pieces (fairly common)
cp - copper pieces (very common)
gems were not an accounting device but something you bought to
avoid muscle strain. If you were carrying too much you got fatigued
and it affected what you could do. If you got too much you may have
to drop/burry/hide something else to reduce your load. Needless to
say magical items were popular in the high cost light weight category
.

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>The 'A' does NOT stand for accountant.
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>Also note that weights of coinage vary wildly--the 1st
>Edition AD&D had gold coins weighing .1 lbs each,
>which is nearly twice the weight of the heaviest coin
>I'm familliar with.
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>More common would be something like the Roman
>standard, where a noumisma (known in the west as a
>"Bezant") weighs 1/72 of a Roman pound.  Very small.
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We didn't go into the type of coins so a gp was a gp not a Roman
or Egyptian coin.

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