That is 13 silver coins. The whole collection will not effectively fit in your palm.

 

In a freeform RP setting, silver tends to get ignored a lot but I like to look at the general value of what I'm trading for in RP.

 

Silver of this weight in the modern day (not counting their historical value) is worth roughly a dollar per gram. Gold coins of this weight are worth roughly 50 dollars per gram -- that's each coin -- while keeping in mind that silver and gold are infinately more common today then they could be in a medieval setting; which would raise their value if not your ability to trade them.

 

You'll find my character trades in silver far more often then in gold.

 

Most people in the world whom do not do business with well-off merchants or aristocrates (the small village blacksmith trades his labor for food -- he doesn't have the time to walk for 5 days to the nearest city to trade coins for something he can actually use or eat, and any barter for the price of coin would start with buying these 5 days of his time on bandit-infested roads) would not be using coins.. and although they will acknowledge your coins as much more valuable then their radishes, it doesn't mean they can afford to take your coins in exchange for their food.

 

Giving a Tavern wench 50 gold coins is enough to get her murdered on the road to a city in a world where 12 gold can buy a slave, 7 gold can buy a horse, and 1 gold and 5 silver can buy a sword -- the M16 of it's age and favorite weapon of professional soldiers everywhere.

 

There is no way a common tavern wench could effectively defend herself if anyone had any idea she had been given fifty gold coins by your character including the other bar-maids.

 

The mercenary she hired to protect her on the road would take the money from her.
 

Who's really going to investigate a girl's body left laying in a ditch on the side of a dirt road? There's no forensics. There's no nothing except a burial if you're particularly religious. She's dead, and half-eatten by scavengers when you find her.

 

Keep this in mind when determining how much coin you should keep on your character's person, and further, when tossing it around at other player's characters.

 

For more interesting insights about fantasy world ecconomics, take a peek at this site.

 

With regards to ratio to D&D coins ... I tend to do 1/10th value. A longsword, that costs 12 gold in D&D ... is worth 1 gold and 2 silver to my character's continuity. Gives silver a little jingle; a little more value.

 

My character would value 100 gold, at what D&D values 1,000.

 

Copper coins can be chopped into sixths.

   - Remember; you're trading for a metal, not for a hard currency!

 

10 copper are worth 1 silver.

 

10 silver are worth 1 gold.

 

10 gold are worth 1 platinum.