How to Create Fantasy Currency Without Breaking Your Economy

Your adventurers walk into a tavern. Food and lodging for the night costs... how much? You realize you've never established what a gold piece is worth in your world. Is 5 gold pieces a fortune or pocket change?

Then your character needs to buy a sword. You write "50 gold coins" because that sounds like a lot. But wait, is that consistent with the tavern meal costing 3 coppers? You have no idea if your economy makes sense because you've never worked out the actual numbers.

Most fantasy writers ignore economics until they need a price, then make up a number that sounds reasonable. But those inconsistent numbers add up. Readers who pay attention notice that your "poor peasant" somehow has 20 gold coins, or your legendary magic sword costs less than a week's wages.

You don't need a PhD in economics. You just need a simple, consistent system with exchange rates you can remember and prices that make logical sense relative to each other. Once you have that foundation, you can reference it whenever characters buy things and your world's economy will feel real instead of arbitrary.

Start With the Anchor: Daily Wage

Before designing coins or prices, establish one number: what does a common laborer earn per day?

This is your economic anchor. Everything else derives from it. If you know daily wage, you can calculate food prices (can't cost more than people can afford), lodging costs (related to wage), equipment prices (how many days of work to buy a sword?), and wealth levels (how much is a lot of money?).

Historical Reference Point

Medieval England (which many fantasy settings roughly approximate): a common laborer earned about 2-3 pence per day. That's your baseline.

In fantasy terms, translate this to your smallest denomination. Let's say: **1 silver piece per day** for common labor. That's easy to remember and work with.

Skilled labor (carpenters, smiths, craftsmen) earned maybe 2-3 times that. So 2-3 silver per day. High skilled professional (architect, senior guildsman) might earn 5-10 silver per day.

Establish this for your world. Pick a daily wage number. Everything else builds from it.

Design Your Denominations

Keep it simple. Three to four denominations is plenty. More than that and readers can't keep track.

Classic Three-Tier System

Copper, silver, gold. Clean, familiar, easy to remember.

Exchange rate: **10 copper = 1 silver, 10 silver = 1 gold**

This means **100 copper = 1 gold**. Decimal system, easy math.

**Copper** is for daily necessities: food, cheap lodging, common goods. The smallest purchases.

**Silver** is for quality goods and services: decent lodging, skilled services, basic equipment. What most regular transactions use.

**Gold** is for expensive items: fine horses, quality weapons and armor, property, luxury goods. Most people rarely see gold coins.

Alternative: Pennies and Pounds

Historical British system: penny, shilling, pound.

**12 pennies = 1 shilling, 20 shillings = 1 pound**

This gives you 240 pennies to a pound. More complex math but historically accurate.

Use this if you want period feel and don't mind explaining the conversion. Most fantasy goes with decimal for simplicity.

Alternative: Four-Tier System

Copper, silver, electrum, gold, platinum.

**10 copper = 1 silver, 5 silver = 1 electrum, 2 electrum = 1 gold, 5 gold = 1 platinum**

Or simplify: **10 copper = 1 silver, 10 silver = 1 gold, 10 gold = 1 platinum**

Four tiers gives you more granularity. But it's also more to track. Only use if you need the extra denominations for story reasons.

Example Economy: Decimal System

Let's build a complete example you can adapt.

Currency Structure

**Copper pennies** (cp): smallest denomination
**Silver marks** (sm): 10 cp = 1 sm
**Gold crowns** (gc): 10 sm = 1 gc (so 100 cp = 1 gc)

Daily Wage Anchor

**Common laborer**: 1 silver mark per day
**Skilled tradesman**: 2-3 silver marks per day
**Master craftsman**: 5 silver marks per day

Food and Drink

**Loaf of bread**: 2 copper pennies
**Cheese (small wheel)**: 5 cp
**Dozen eggs**: 3 cp
**Cheap meal (bread, cheese, stew)**: 5 cp
**Good meal at tavern**: 1 sm
**Fine meal at expensive establishment**: 3-5 sm
**Mug of ale**: 2 cp
**Wine (common)**: 5 cp per cup
**Wine (fine)**: 2 sm per cup

Logic check: laborer earning 1 sm per day (10 cp) can afford two cheap meals (10 cp total) or one good meal. That's survival level. They're not starving but not comfortable.

Lodging

**Spot in common room (floor, shared)**: 2 cp
**Bed in common room (shared room, multiple beds)**: 5 cp
**Private room (small, basic)**: 1 sm
**Good private room**: 3 sm
**Luxury suite**: 1 gc

Logic check: common lodging (5 cp) plus two cheap meals (10 cp) = 15 cp per day. Laborer earning 1 sm (10 cp) can barely afford this. They probably sleep in common room (2 cp) and eat cheap (5 cp each meal), spending entire day's wage on survival.

Clothing

**Basic tunic/shirt**: 5 sm
**Good quality outfit**: 2 gc
**Fine clothes (merchant class)**: 5-10 gc
**Noble attire**: 20+ gc

Logic check: basic clothing costs 5 sm, which is 5 days of labor for common worker. New clothes are significant purchase. Most people own 2-3 outfits maximum and wear them until they're rags.

Animals

**Chicken**: 5 cp
**Goat**: 1 sm
**Pig**: 3 sm
**Cow**: 10 sm
**Riding horse (average)**: 5 gc
**War horse (trained)**: 20-50 gc
**Draft horse**: 8 gc

Logic check: riding horse at 5 gc costs 50 days of labor for common worker (about 2 months' wages). That's significant wealth. Most people walk or use donkeys/mules (cheaper, maybe 2 gc).

Weapons and Armor

**Dagger**: 2 sm
**Short sword**: 1 gc
**Longsword (good quality)**: 3-5 gc
**Masterwork sword**: 10+ gc
**Leather armor**: 5 sm
**Chain mail**: 5 gc
**Plate armor (full suit)**: 50-100 gc

Logic check: basic sword (1 gc) costs 10 days of labor. Quality sword (3-5 gc) is a month's wages. These are expensive tools for professionals. Peasants use spears and knives (much cheaper).

Services

**Healer/doctor (basic treatment)**: 5 sm
**Healer (serious illness/injury)**: 2-5 gc
**Magical healing (if available)**: 10+ gc per spell
**Sword repair**: 2-5 sm
**New horseshoes**: 1 sm
**Room and board (month)**: 3 gc
**Apprentice fee (year)**: 10-20 gc

Wealth Levels in Concrete Terms

Use your currency to define poverty, comfort, and wealth meaningfully.

Poverty/Subsistence

**Assets**: Less than 1 gold crown total
**Daily reality**: Earning just enough to cover food and shelter. No savings. One bad day (injury, illness, can't work) means disaster.
**What they can't afford**: New clothes, meat more than once a week, their own room, a horse, medical care beyond basic herbs.

Most common people live here. Laborers, servants, poor farmers, street vendors.

Comfortable/Middle Class

**Assets**: 10-50 gold crowns
**Daily reality**: Can afford good meals, private room when traveling, occasional luxury. Small savings cushion for emergencies. Own their tools or shop.
**What they can afford**: Quality clothes, occasional fine meal, replacing equipment when needed, basic medical care, maybe a riding horse.

Skilled tradesmen, successful merchants, minor officials, sergeants.

Wealthy/Upper Class

**Assets**: 100-1000+ gold crowns
**Daily reality**: Never worry about basic needs. Own property. Servants. Fine clothes and food. Can afford magic items or services if available.
**What they can afford**: War horses, plate armor, magical healing, patronizing artists, building projects, investments.

Successful merchants, guild masters, minor nobles, adventurers who've been successful for years.

Noble/Ruling Class

**Assets**: 10,000+ gold crowns (plus land, property, assets)
**Daily reality**: Immense wealth. Multiple estates. Large retinues. Political power. Collection of valuable magic items if setting allows.
**What they can afford**: Basically anything. Small military forces, castles, treasuries, sponsoring expeditions.

High nobles, royalty, archmages, legendary adventurers.

Making Magic Affect Economy

If your world has common magic, it changes economic logic significantly.

Healing Magic

If magical healing is readily available and affordable, people don't die from infections or broken bones. Population is higher, people live longer, labor is more available.

If healing is expensive (10+ gold per spell), it's only for wealthy. Common people still die from things magic could fix but can't afford.

This affects: life expectancy, population size, value placed on healers, cost of magical services.

Utility Magic

If mages commonly create food, water, warmth, light, the economy of those goods changes. Why buy lanterns if light spells are cheap? Why haul water if mages create it?

But if magic is rare or expensive, mundane goods retain value.

Decide: is magic common or rare? If common, it should be a normal part of the economy. If rare, treat it as luxury service only wealthy afford.

Magical Items

How common are they? If every adventurer has magic sword, they're not that valuable. Maybe 10-20 gc for +1 sword because they're manufactured regularly.

If magic items are legendary and rare, one might be priceless. More than money can buy. Requires quest, favor, or finding ancient artifact.

Don't just make up magic item prices. Think about: how are they made? How many exist? Who can afford them? Are they trade goods or treasures?

Weight and Bulk Matter

Gold is heavy. 50 gold coins weighs about a pound. 500 gold coins is 10 pounds. 5,000 gold is 100 pounds.

Your adventurers who just looted dragon hoard with 10,000 gold coins are carrying 200 pounds of metal. That requires multiple bags, pack animals, or magic storage.

This is why wealthy people use:

**Letters of credit**: Document from bank or merchant house promising payment. You carry paper, not metal.

**Gemstones**: Concentrated value. A 100gc ruby is much lighter than 100 gold coins.

**Trade goods**: Valuable items that can be sold: spices, fine cloth, rare materials. Easier to transport in bulk.

**Property and investments**: Truly wealthy people don't have piles of coins. They have land, businesses, assets that generate income.

Show wealth through these methods rather than just giving characters impossibly heavy coin bags.

Regional Variations

Not everywhere uses the same currency unless you have strong centralized empire.

Different Kingdoms, Different Coins

Each kingdom mints its own currency. They might be roughly equivalent (gold is gold) but exact weights and purity vary.

Moneychangers exist at borders and major cities. They exchange foreign coins for local currency, taking a percentage as fee (5-10%).

This creates: flavor (each culture has distinct coin names), practical problems (character has northern coins, southern merchant won't take them), and opportunities (smuggling, counterfeit, black market exchange).

Trade Equivalencies

Cultures that don't use same metals might trade by weight or established rates.

Example: northern kingdom uses silver standard, southern uses gold. They trade at established rate: 10 northern silver = 1 southern gold.

Barter Still Exists

Remote villages might not use money much at all. They barter: chickens for grain, labor for goods, services traded directly.

Coins are for cities and formal trade. Rural areas might see copper occasionally, silver rarely, gold almost never.

Showing Money in Daily Life

Abstract exchange rates are useful for planning, but scenes come alive when you show how ordinary people interact with money. Make currency feel real by showing characters making economic choices at their level.

Poor Characters and Coin Management

Peasant counting coppers carefully, making each one stretch. Every coin matters because they're living at subsistence level. Character choosing between food and lodging. Servant receiving monthly wages in mixed denomination, calculating what they can afford before next payday.

"She had three coppers left until next market day. Enough for bread but not meat. She'd make do with what was in the garden."

Show the weight of economic precarity through small decisions. Can't afford healing potion. Mends clothes instead of buying new. Splits meals. These details ground poverty in real behavior.

Middle-Class Transactions

Skilled tradesman negotiating payment for work, calculating if they can afford better tools. Merchant keeping small coins for making change, frustrated when customer pays copper debt with silver piece and expects change back.

These characters aren't desperate but still think about money. They budget, save for larger purchases, weigh value versus cost. Show comfort with some financial cushion, not constant stress or unlimited funds.

Common Mistakes That Break Immersion

Everything Costs Gold

Adventurers pay 5 gold for a meal. No. Gold is rare and valuable. Most transactions use copper and silver. Gold is for expensive items.

If you've made gold common, you've devalued it. Either accept that in your world gold isn't precious (requires explanation) or fix your prices.

Inconsistent Prices

Meal costs 1 silver. Sword costs 10 silver. Horse costs 5 silver. Wait, sword costs twice what a horse does? That makes no sense.

Make a price list and stick to it. Reference it when character buy things.

Poor Peasant With 20 Gold

Character is described as destitute but pulls out 20 gold coins. Those are contradictory.

20 gold is significant wealth (20 days skilled labor, or 200 days common labor). That's not poor.

Match descriptions to amounts. Poor = coppers, maybe a few silver. Comfortable = silver and some gold. Wealthy = gold and gems.

Treating Coins Like Infinite Resource

Characters never run out of money, never mention weight, never need to resupply funds. They just reach into bag and have whatever they need.

Money should be resource that matters. Running low creates tension. Managing funds is part of adventure logistics.

Forgetting Most People Are Poor

If everyone in your tavern is casually spending gold, there's no sense of economy. Most people should be using coppers and small silver. Seeing someone pay with gold should be notable.

Practical Usage Tips

Make a Reference Sheet

Write down your exchange rates, daily wage, and common prices. Reference it whenever characters buy something. Consistency matters more than perfection.

Round for Simplicity

Don't worry about exact change. "About 5 silver" is fine. You're not tracking coppers unless it matters to plot.

Show Wealth Through Spending Habits

Poor character: counts coppers carefully, shares meals, sleeps in common rooms, mends clothes repeatedly.

Wealthy character: tips generously, orders best quality, wastes food, replaces things instead of repairing.

Show economic class through behavior with money, not just amounts.

Make Prices Matter Sometimes

Not every purchase needs drama. But occasionally: character can't afford the healing potion, has to choose between food and lodging, needs to earn more money before buying equipment upgrade.

If money never matters, why track it?

Historical Research Helps

Read about medieval prices and wages. Adjust for your world but ground it in historical reality. Readers familiar with history will notice if you're wildly off.

When to Break the Rules

Sometimes story needs trump economic logic. That's okay. But be intentional.

If magic is so common that economies wouldn't work like medieval reality, acknowledge that. Show how magic changes economic structure.

If you need characters to have specific amount of money for plot, arrange it: inheritance, payment for quest, finding treasure. Just make the amount consistent with established economy.

If tracking coins becomes tedious, abstract it: "you have enough for supplies" or "you're running low on funds." Don't let bookkeeping slow story.

Making It Feel Real

You don't need complex economic treatise. You need:

1. Exchange rates you can remember (preferably decimal)
2. Daily wage as anchor point
3. Prices for common goods relative to that wage
4. Wealth levels defined in concrete terms
5. Consistency when characters spend money

Get these basics right and your economy will feel real even if you never dive deeper into trade networks, taxation, or monetary policy.

The goal isn't historical dissertation on medieval economics. It's giving readers enough consistency and logic that money feels meaningful in your world. When characters earn it, spend it, or run out of it, those moments land because you've established what money actually means.

Build your system once. Reference it throughout. Your world will feel more grounded and your characters' economic struggles and successes will resonate because readers understand the value of every copper, silver, and gold coin changing hands.