I've taken a different approach.
The word penny, comes from pennyweight. It's 1,5555 grams of silver (not defined like that originally, obviously). 20 pennies make an ounce.
In my game I use money like this:
pennies are the smallest unit usually. They can be broken up to form half and quarter pennies. Usually a pennyweight of silver, but can also be a larger coin of copper.
20 pennies equal one larger (troy ounce) silver coin. This can be called a thaler, a lunar or any other.
12 thalers add up to a (troy) pound of silver.
A gold wheel is an ounce of gold. A pound of silver (12 lunars) is equal in value to an ounce of gold (a wheel).
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There are good sources out there for historical buying power. I vastly prefer a world where a silver penny is real money (get's you a meal at an inn, or buys an unskilled worker for a day), to the RPG standard where you need a gold coin to buy beer.
-Adept, aka Valkoharja
PS. How does one post a followup on these forums?
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