# Do you use electrum pieces?



## fanboy2000 (Aug 29, 2010)

Do you use electrum in your game?

I ask because I've actually had players who were against it for some reason. Because I'm a jerk, I started handing out electrum pieces occasionally as treasure. Once, I had my players find some electrum in a box labeled "rust monster food."

I don't know what it is, but ever since them, I've given out electrum as a treasure occasionally. Just so I can spice things up a little.


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## TarionzCousin (Aug 29, 2010)

Only rarely in Forgotten Realms games--just to make the players wonder.


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## Dice4Hire (Aug 29, 2010)

Don't play that edition anymore. Haven't for ten years.


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## frankthedm (Aug 29, 2010)

Electrum coins were uncommon but available when i ran D&D.

Hmm, if I run a 3e D&D game again I might use 10 copper =1 silver, *100* silver = 1 gold, with electrum as half a gold piece since change would be needed often enough.


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## Cor_Malek (Aug 29, 2010)

Electrum, tumbaga, occasionally tombac. All my silver coins are made out of billon, often a cheap one  But where the fun starts, are the fakes. 

In homebrew settings (but also wherever I can justify it), I use different coins for different countries. Because of the alloys, the weight of coins isn't always(trans. never is) interchangeable with weight of gold or silver, which adds fun dynamic (have fun sitting on 7000 gold pieces of country you've helped to conquer).

Since 95% of them are bracteates, and my eco is always toned down a few octaves - a full-weight, pure gold coins would be considered an incredible treasure indeed  I never quite liked FR/PHB/DMG/PF economic models, with prices that were killing my suspense of disbelief (adventurers as main occupation+), but it took a lot of trials and errors to make one that fits my taste and, well... works


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## jonesy (Aug 29, 2010)

I have to ask. What's funny about Electrum coins? Their obscurity in modern times?


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## IronWolf (Aug 29, 2010)

I can't say I have, but I am not against doing so either.


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## Man in the Funny Hat (Aug 29, 2010)

In my games "odd" coins like that exist and so are occasionally found in treasure.  Coin treasure always has value for the metal alone if nothing else, but old coins, foreign coins, and "inconvenient" or unusual coins will show up in treasures and often PC's will find they aren't directly spendable.  But characters don't generally need to do anything more than trade them in for more practical coin - same as they do with copper and silver eventually - or have them melted into saleable ingots.  Both at a loss of course.   It's otherwise more trouble than it's worth to FORCE a non-decimal coinage system upon players, IME.


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## Olgar Shiverstone (Aug 29, 2010)

Yes, frequently.  I also use ofdd coins that might be of differing value (due to different weight or shapes), or ancient coins of older realms.

Generic gp are both boring and in the context of dungeon adventuring unrealistic.  Is the Bank of Greyhawk minting GP used the world over?


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## Remathilis (Aug 29, 2010)

In 2e, yeah. Few ever did anything with it, but yeah.

In 3e, since they are not officially in the game, no. However, the dwarves have a heavy silver coin equal to 5 sp (electrum's worth in 2e) so if I ever run an old module with electrum in it, I just use the dwarven coin instead. It creates a bit of local flavor.


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## fanboy2000 (Aug 29, 2010)

jonesy said:


> I have to ask. What's funny about Electrum coins? Their obscurity in modern times?



First, electrum is a an inherently funny word. Some words sound funnier than others. (E.g., pumpernickel)

Also, in 3 and 3.5, games that a completely decimal coin system, electrum are odd because their half a gold (or whatever value you wish to assign them) and it ruins the idea of easily converting your coins into a simple decimal number. (I.e., I have 235.36 gp) You an still do it, but you have to expend a very small amount of brain power to do so. Players are inherently lazy and sometime they just want their phat loot.


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## renau1g (Aug 29, 2010)

I only give electrum pieces because they were bizarre  the whole economy was run in EP's


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## Plane Sailing (Aug 29, 2010)

Never used electrum coins. IIRC they were introduced in 1e, and it offended my OD&D grognardia 

I'm sure I've since seen an article that pointed out that electrum would be so difficult to make that it would be far more valuable than gold or platinum, but I can't lay my hands on the article.


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## AFGNCAAP (Aug 29, 2010)

Both. Used them as a default in 1st/2nd AD&D, then stick with the standard system in 3rd ed. & beyond.

I've thought of using just electrum & bronze coinage for a homebrew setting, but that idea's fallen by the wayside.

I plan to still use electrum coins, as treasure. I like the idea that a dragon's hoard is full of antique electrum coins, making things a bit difficult for immediately spending.


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## Lord Metal-Demon (Aug 29, 2010)

Yes ... more so than PP, but not nearly as often as CP, SP, or GP.


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## jonesy (Aug 29, 2010)

Plane Sailing said:


> I'm sure I've since seen an article that pointed out that electrum would be so difficult to make that it would be far more valuable than gold or platinum, but I can't lay my hands on the article.



Make? You mean mint? The alloy itself is naturally occurring, just like gold and silver (both of which it is composed of). It was a better material for coins than gold because at the time it was used people hadn't yet figured out how to properly refine gold. Once they did, electrum wasn't so handy anymore.

I've seen auctions online where electrum coins have gone for $5000-$10.000, but that's probably because they are so rare now.


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## ColonelHardisson (Aug 29, 2010)

I used them back in my 1e/2e days. When I get a chance to run a game again (4e or HackMaster), I'll use 'em. My players can use 'em to buy lots of ten-foot poles and mules.


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## Ed_Laprade (Aug 29, 2010)

Voted no, although I did use them occasionally back in 1e. Never could stand the non-decimal system as a player, even though it was more accurate for the supposed times. Just one more bit of bookeeping that I didn't want to bother with. Haven't used PP since the 1e days either.


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## vagabundo (Aug 29, 2010)

Wikipedia has some nice historical information:

Electrum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Interesting stuff.


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## Camelot (Aug 30, 2010)

Having started and stuck with 4e, when I saw "electrum," I equated it with "astral diamonds."  Lucky for my dignity, I read the rest of the thread before posting. =) Of course, the obvious answer would be no, since they do not exist in 4e (except in the Forgotten Realms, where they are actually worth 5 gp).  I haven't used astral diamonds either, because we haven't gotten up to that level of income (not to mention they sound silly).


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## fanboy2000 (Aug 30, 2010)

That should be my next poll: have you ever used astral diamonds? I know I haven't.


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## Aeolius (Aug 30, 2010)

Electrum and orichalcum... though the main trade is in shells, pearls, and coral.


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## Plane Sailing (Aug 30, 2010)

Ed_Laprade said:


> Voted no, although I did use them occasionally back in 1e. Never could stand the non-decimal system as a player, even though it was more accurate for the supposed times. Just one more bit of bookeeping that I didn't want to bother with. Haven't used PP since the 1e days either.




Personally I always hankered after a coinage system which mixed base 12 and base 20 with a bit of base 21 thrown in for the wealthy ones.

Felt like my childhood.


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## angelababy (Aug 30, 2010)

Both at a loss of course. It's otherwise more trouble than it's worth to FORCE a non-decimal coinage system upon players, IME.


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## Boregar (Aug 30, 2010)

Not anymore, but I used to. I remember almost every hoard had a list of copper, silver, electrum and gold pieces, plus some platinum if it was a particularly tough monster.


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## Corathon (Aug 30, 2010)

I use them, but I run 1E; the treasure tables in that game produce electrum reasonably often. 

Forcing coins to a strict decimal system just feels too modern to me - like using meters instead of yards, it just strikes the wrong chord.


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## Orius (Aug 31, 2010)

jonesy said:


> I have to ask. What's funny about Electrum coins? Their obscurity in modern times?




It's because like the older platinum pieces, they're an oddball coin.  They're equal to 5 sp, so it mucks around with the easy decimal system of cp/sp/gp.  Platinum used to be like that, except 5 gp, to the point where I was converting them like that in 3e and shortchanging my players when I randomly rolled treasure (I really didn't bother to take a close look at the coin values in the 3e PHB, and just kept using the 2e exchange rate).  

And it's not just that they're worth half a gold piece, all the prices in the PHB are routinely listed in cp/sp/gp, so they just add more complexity to the game.  Platinum pieces and astral diamonds at least are convenient for making large sums of money more portable; ep don't do much because you can just convert silver pieces in to gold or platinum, and just skip electrum.


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## Nadaka (Sep 1, 2010)

I use them to annihilate positrons.

OOHH... electrUM. 

I don't. I use Purchase DC's in D20 modern. I don't hand out wealth bonuses either, but a PDC that compares to the wealth score and grants an increase to wealth equivalent to the loss that would normally be suffered if you purchased an item of that DC.

Even when I did play D&D, I don't think I ever used electrum. cp/sp/gp/pp. In 2e my older brother played  with coins of tin, copper, steel, silver, electrum, gold, platinum, mythral in order of value.


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