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As an adventurer you're almost always going to have coins on you. Lots of coins. Whether you just got them from the dungeon you're exploring or brought them in yourself doesn't really matter, they're there.
Most of the time coins are treated as a burden. A valuable burden, but still just a weight to carry around that slows you down, takes up space, and alerts enemies by clinking at inopportune times. It's not entirely wrong. Coins are heavy, they do take effort to haul, and unless you find someone to trade with or bribe in the dungeon they're useless as currency until you bring them up to the surface and into town.
But they're not completely useless.
Treating them only as cargo ignores the fact that coins are physical objects with useful properties beyond their monetary value. (We forget that about real-world money too.) Coins are uniformly-sized and shaped pieces of metal that you can use for all kinds of jobs in the dungeon.
For example, you can take your coins and:
- Throw them down halls and into rooms as a distraction or to check if anything is lurking out of sight. It's the classic 'make a noise that the guards will investigate' ploy and it works. If you make a noise and something reacts, you know to be careful. Throwing coins in an opponent's face is also an effective distraction.
- Throw them ahead of you to check for traps. A single coin might set off a trap with a hair trigger and you can throw a sack full to test heavier weights. It'll also let you test for chemical hazards. If you throw a silver or copper piece in a room and it instantly starts tarnishing/patinating you can tell it's probably not smart to go in (without the right PPE). And if a gold coin starts reacting, then just run.
- Mark your path. Stick them in cracks in the walls, between floor stones, on ledges, anywhere they'll be visible and catch light. It'll give you a trail of reflective blazes that are easier to pick out in torch or lantern light than chalk marks for when you backtrack. Coin trails are good for navigation, temporary in case you want to be stealthy, and if they're gone when you come back at least you know someone's been there.
- Set them out as bait. Wait patiently and find out exactly who's following you.
- Use them as tools. Coins make great improvised screwdrivers, wrenches, and drifts. You can also use them to pry up the edges of stones, grills, grates, decorative facings, access panels, anything you want to break into.
- Use them as shims and jams. You can level or stabilize equipment and items on uneven surfaces by slipping coins under the unsupported parts until it's got a solid base. Tuck a short rolled stack of them into a door's strike box to keep it from latching if it closes. Shove coins into cracks like an old fashioned jammed cam/stop to hold ropes and climbing gear in place. (A bag of coins might actually be better than a traditional block cam because it's flexible but will seize up if you put force on it.)
- Use them as weights. A heavy pile or sack of coins makes an excellent anchor or counterweight, and of course they're good for holding down pressure plates, buttons, triggers, levers, and switches. You can accurately control the amount of weight you use too since coins are small units of mass and similar sizes.
- Test distances. You could drop a coin down a hole and listen for when it hits the bottom, but it's smarter to tie a pouch full to the end of a rope and use it as a plumb. That also works for measuring water depths. A weighted rope is really just a useful thing to have in general.
- Make a weighted rope. Coins on the end of a rope let you accurately throw it across gaps/chasms, up into trees or to ledges/areas above you, over water, wherever you need it to go without having to tie a heavy knot that takes up a portion of the rope's length. And if you tie the coins-on-a-rope to the end of your 10' pole you can swing them and (with some finesse) reach and interact with things outside the normal 10' range.
- Take advantage of their conductivity to close circuits and activate electric or magic-powered devices. Might short-circuit or explode, but it's probably fine.
- Shape them into whatever you need. Gold, silver, and copper are all relatively soft and ductile metals. You can treat coins as boullion/metal stock and cut, grind, hammer, or cast them into simple tools and shapes as needed. It might take a while and it might look rough, but you can do it. And yes, I did say cast. Gold, silver, and copper all have melting points within the range of what a stoked and tended wood fire can produce. (Au 1948F, Ag 1763F, Cu 1984F and a properly handled fire can make ~2000F.) It'd take work and planning to do, but it's possible.
- Roll them and throw them like bricks or use them as brass knuckles. You should be rolling your coins anyway. It makes them compact so they're easier to pack and carry, and keeps them from clinking.
- Use them as ammunition. Slings, slingshots, crossbows, and blunderbusses don't really care what goes in them. Coins are dense. They might tumble in the air, but you can practice and learn to compensate for it.
- Stick them in a sock and hit stuff with it. An improvised cosh is the best kind of cosh and terrible for enemy morale.
In the dungeon everything you have is a tool and everything can be repurposed, even your loot. Especially your loot. Your wealth is worth absolutely nothing if you die in a hole, so don't be too attached to it. Be creative and use everything at your disposal to survive.
Treating them only as cargo ignores the fact that coins are physical objects with useful properties beyond their monetary value. (We forget that about real-world money too.) Coins are uniformly-sized and shaped pieces of metal that you can use for all kinds of jobs in the dungeon.
For example, you can take your coins and:
- Throw them down halls and into rooms as a distraction or to check if anything is lurking out of sight. It's the classic 'make a noise that the guards will investigate' ploy and it works. If you make a noise and something reacts, you know to be careful. Throwing coins in an opponent's face is also an effective distraction.
- Throw them ahead of you to check for traps. A single coin might set off a trap with a hair trigger and you can throw a sack full to test heavier weights. It'll also let you test for chemical hazards. If you throw a silver or copper piece in a room and it instantly starts tarnishing/patinating you can tell it's probably not smart to go in (without the right PPE). And if a gold coin starts reacting, then just run.
- Mark your path. Stick them in cracks in the walls, between floor stones, on ledges, anywhere they'll be visible and catch light. It'll give you a trail of reflective blazes that are easier to pick out in torch or lantern light than chalk marks for when you backtrack. Coin trails are good for navigation, temporary in case you want to be stealthy, and if they're gone when you come back at least you know someone's been there.
- Set them out as bait. Wait patiently and find out exactly who's following you.
- Use them as tools. Coins make great improvised screwdrivers, wrenches, and drifts. You can also use them to pry up the edges of stones, grills, grates, decorative facings, access panels, anything you want to break into.
- Use them as shims and jams. You can level or stabilize equipment and items on uneven surfaces by slipping coins under the unsupported parts until it's got a solid base. Tuck a short rolled stack of them into a door's strike box to keep it from latching if it closes. Shove coins into cracks like an old fashioned jammed cam/stop to hold ropes and climbing gear in place. (A bag of coins might actually be better than a traditional block cam because it's flexible but will seize up if you put force on it.)
- Use them as weights. A heavy pile or sack of coins makes an excellent anchor or counterweight, and of course they're good for holding down pressure plates, buttons, triggers, levers, and switches. You can accurately control the amount of weight you use too since coins are small units of mass and similar sizes.
- Test distances. You could drop a coin down a hole and listen for when it hits the bottom, but it's smarter to tie a pouch full to the end of a rope and use it as a plumb. That also works for measuring water depths. A weighted rope is really just a useful thing to have in general.
- Make a weighted rope. Coins on the end of a rope let you accurately throw it across gaps/chasms, up into trees or to ledges/areas above you, over water, wherever you need it to go without having to tie a heavy knot that takes up a portion of the rope's length. And if you tie the coins-on-a-rope to the end of your 10' pole you can swing them and (with some finesse) reach and interact with things outside the normal 10' range.
- Take advantage of their conductivity to close circuits and activate electric or magic-powered devices. Might short-circuit or explode, but it's probably fine.
- Shape them into whatever you need. Gold, silver, and copper are all relatively soft and ductile metals. You can treat coins as boullion/metal stock and cut, grind, hammer, or cast them into simple tools and shapes as needed. It might take a while and it might look rough, but you can do it. And yes, I did say cast. Gold, silver, and copper all have melting points within the range of what a stoked and tended wood fire can produce. (Au 1948F, Ag 1763F, Cu 1984F and a properly handled fire can make ~2000F.) It'd take work and planning to do, but it's possible.
- Roll them and throw them like bricks or use them as brass knuckles. You should be rolling your coins anyway. It makes them compact so they're easier to pack and carry, and keeps them from clinking.
- Use them as ammunition. Slings, slingshots, crossbows, and blunderbusses don't really care what goes in them. Coins are dense. They might tumble in the air, but you can practice and learn to compensate for it.
- Stick them in a sock and hit stuff with it. An improvised cosh is the best kind of cosh and terrible for enemy morale.
In the dungeon everything you have is a tool and everything can be repurposed, even your loot. Especially your loot. Your wealth is worth absolutely nothing if you die in a hole, so don't be too attached to it. Be creative and use everything at your disposal to survive.
Great Article. Thanks for sharing your ideas.
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