How Much Gold is That?

Below are the mental landmarks I use to make sense of a treasure’s value when stocking an old school dungeon, and describing treasure to the players.

While I run B/X mostly as is, I use the silver standard as laid out in Lamentations of the Flame Princess (as well as the equipment list).

TL;DR, keep all the numbers the same, but convert “gold pieces”(gp) to “silver pieces”(sp). 50sp=1gp.

I do this mostly because I like treasure hoards that look like this:

from The Count of Monte Cristo (1975)

Rather than this:

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

100 silver pieces
-an "inventory slot" in LotFP encumbrance
-a riding horse
-about 18 man-days of casual labor
-a full suit of chain armor
-a blank spell book (a large blank volume made with the best materials available)
-monthly salary for skilled labor (like a scholar, a foot soldier, or a craftsman).
-a finely made gold ring
-enough to make a yeoman or a tradesman’s eyes light up, but nothing too impressive for a wealthy person
-in modern terms—a nice roll of 100 dollar bills

500 silver pieces
-a war horse
-25 longswords
-an illuminated (but nonmagical) book
-two month’s wages for an alchemist
-more coins than a regular man can carry
-the “good silver” at a wealthy merchant’s home
-cutting edge scientific instruments

1000 silver pieces
-plate armor
-a river boat
-50 plain longswords
-Ten month’s pay for a skilled laborer
-two fine horsedrawn coaches
-ransom for a knight (his horse and armor kept as a gratuity)
-a richly decorated gold chalice
-in modern terms, a brand new car, or the cash to buy one

5000 silver pieces
-Richly decorated plate armor for a knight and his steed
-an opulent work of art (a big detailed tapestry, a jewel encrusted goblet, a masterfully illuminated holy book)
-a hoard of silver coins that will take 11 regular men or two pack animals to carry (about a wagonload)
-the finest piece of jewelry available for sale in a major city
-a paperweight found in a Lich’s junk drawer
-a sack of 100 gold coins

10,000 silver pieces
-a renowned work of art
-a single huge, perfect gemstone
-ransom for a lord
-a cart filled with the rarest spices
-a sack of cut diamonds, rubies, and emeralds
-A “tower house” (a three story fortified “mini castle” without a wall)
-the service of a hundred fighting men for a month
-in modern terms—a nice new house

50,000 silver pieces
-a large sailing ship
-a legendary work of art, perhaps featured in stories dating back centuries
-a hoard of coins that requires a hundred men to carry
-enough coins to load down twenty pack animals
-a keep, built from scratch

100,000-200,000
-the crown jewels of a major kingdom
-ransom for the prince-heir of a major kingdom
-a unique, powerful machine created by a forgotten science
-the defining masterwork of a legendary artist (Michelangelo’s David; Picasso’s Guernica)
-a top of the line warship
-a brand new castle, built from scratch
-a mythical dragon’s hoard
-in modern terms—a private jet or a luxurious yacht

1,000,000+
-an armada of war ships
-a sprawling fortress complex
-the treasure vault of a dwarven city at its peak

It probably falls apart somewhere around 50k silver pieces, but it’s close enough for stocking dungeons.

Just to check my work, I took a look at the prices of top end warships and castles (the biggest capital items I can imagine a D&D character spending hard cash for).

I searched around for some stats on the early modern British Navy; at the start of the Seven Years War they had 88 Ships of the Line (the best warship available) and hundreds of other ships (at least according to this random website).
http://allempires.com/article/index.php?q=english_navy_1649-1815

So those prices seem believable. A world spanning empire has less than a hundred of the top end ships, plus lots of smaller ones. The fleet is built over the course of many years, with taxes drawn from a wealthy island nation and her colonies, along with plenty of sovereign debt.

Another way to check is by seeing if a hypothetical treasure hoard looks believable when compared to its buying power:

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

A four wheel cart drawn by two animals can carry about 5,000 coins.

5,000 gold coins are worth 250,000 silver pieces (and 250,000XP).

I’m referencing the film Count of Monte Cristo because it features a convincing enough fictional treasure hoard, not because of any assumption about its historical accuracy. To me, this looks like a magnificent treasure for a group of mid-level PCs.

This is what level 7 looks like

Anyways, in the film, the Count's buddy rolls up with his wagonful of treasure, and that’s apparently enough to get this wealthy nobleman dude to deed his magnificent palace to a stranger right there on the spot, along with all of his expensive furnishings, and ride off with nothing but his gold and the clothes on his back. So clearly Edmond Dantes is paying something more than “market value”. Maybe more than twice what it’s all worth, but probably not ten times.

So with this in mind, I’m comfortable that I’m at least playing with the right orders of magnitude when describing big treasure hauls.