In Dungeons & Dragons, rewards are a key pillar of the excitement that follows a successful quest. Sure, we’re heroes, but that doesn’t mean we turn down a little treasure! But if this was real life, how far would a gold coin take us? In this article, we explore the intriguing question: How much is dnd gold worth in US dollars?
Along with some fun converters below to see how much your shopping list, paycheck, and whatever else would be in bronze, silver, gold, or platinum pieces.
Why make a DnD Gold to USD converter?
Gold is infamously a symbol of power and status in most societies. Its glimmer can cause even the most honorable of men to fall ill to dragon-sickness. It also seems that in the game of Dungeons and Dragons, you can’t really get enough of it. A half-an-hour shopping segment will deplete my treasure quite considerably. With a spear costing only 1 gold piece (gp), am I being scammed out of my hard-earned income?
Furthermore, the price of a gold coin seems to fluctuate quite wildly from one Dungeon Master to the next. If your DM doesn’t refer to a table, they kind of give you a price based on what that person thinks a gold coin would cost.
This led me to my next thought, “How much is one gold piece worth anyway?”. In the rest of this article, I am going to take you through my journey of discovering just how messed up the economy of Dungeons and Dragons is.
How Do You Calculate Fake Money into Real Money?
The thing to keep in mind is that gold (like most precious metals) is valued by its weight. So the first logical step is to find out how much a single gold coin weighs in Dungeons and Dragons. Luckily, we have that answer!
In the 5th edition of the Player’s Handbook, it states that 50 coins weigh about 1 pound (which is whole other issue on how does a character transport so much gold?) and gives us a base weight.
Gold is most commonly measured in ounces, which is 1/16th a pound. Then to make the math easier to do, we will go onto the internet and find the price for a single ounce of gold. As of 08/30/2024, that price is a whopping $2,500 USD. Multiply that for a pound of gold and you get $32,800 per pound of gold coins.
Then to find the price of a single coin, you simply divide a pound of gold by 50 individual coins to get a final number of $656 even. Which is an incredibly stupid amount for a single coin. But we must continue with our experiment.
$2,500 USD*16 ounces= $32,800/pound
$32,800 pound/50 individual coins= $656 per coin
Then, since we want to get fancy with it, let’s also figure out how much all the other coins would be.
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How much would Copper, Silver, Electrum, and Platinum be in USD?
In the real world, these materials exist around us and have their own worth. However, we are going to throw this logic out the window due to the world of Dungeons and Dragons basing all their coins relative to the cost of a Gold Piece.
The conversion to each metal is pretty easy to remember with Silver being 1/10th of Gold, Copper being 1/100 of Gold, Electrum being 1/2 of Gold, and Platinum being worth 10 pieces of Gold. Without boring you all with the math, the table below showcases this math.
| Coinage | USD Equivelent |
|---|---|
| Copper | $6.56 |
| Silver | $65.60 |
| Gold | $656.00 |
| Electrum | $328.00 |
| Platinum | $6,560.00 |
Converter
Since we have done all the above math, it becomes easy to create all kinds of fun ways to see how much we would be balling in the worlds we play in. Sadly, you’ll probably need to read this article when finding out your amount: How to Play a Peasant: Ye Old Roleplaying Guide.
In the converter below, I added some things that I wanted to know. For instance, how much would my shopping list be after a hearty trip to Target? My favorite part is getting my party’s finances together and seeing how much we are all worth together and individually.
If you are interested in seeing how much your party is worth in the world of Dungeons of Dragons, here is a Google sheet that you can experiment with. Stop Talking To Me and Take Me To The Converter
Closing Remarks
We’d love to hear what your party is worth! Comment below and let us know!
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