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Fantasy role-playing game money systems and currencies are typically based on real-world historical values and statistics, usually from the "Medieval" era, also known as the Middle Ages, as opposed to the earlier classical civilization of the "Age of Antiquity" (the height of the Greeks and Romans) and the latter "Modern Age" , though some games borrow from pre- and post-Medieval periods for their fantasy currency systems.

MEDIEVAL AGES

The Middle Ages span from about 476 to 1500 AD, and are broken down as follows:

Before 476 AD Classic Antiquity (Pre-Medieval)
476 - 1000 AD Early Middle Ages / Dark Ages / Late Antiquity
1000 - 1300 AD High Middle Ages
1300 - 1500 AD Late Middle Ages
After 1500 AD Renaissance / Early Modern (Post-Medieval)

Casually, the Middle Ages are said to have begun with the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th Century, and ended with the rise of nation-states, European overseas expansion and the division and Reformation of Christianity in the early 16th Century.This work will use the Late Middle Ages, about 1450-1550, as a general baseline for all values and measurements.

LIVING WAGES

One day's work tended to be the average measure of "basic payment" for most "common" roles in any ancient time, be it civilian or military, but since there were far more serfs and peasants than anything else, we'll use the common peasant and all of his related values as our baseline for wages and money. It should be noted this is an urban peasant or one who survives mainly on general labor and day-work, rather than a farmer, freeman or otherwise.

PEASANTS: FREEMEN AND SERFS

About 90% of the people of the Middle Ages would be considered peasants:

Freemen - fully independent individuals who worked only for themselves and owned or rented land from a Lord. Some Freeman even rose from humble beginnings and became gentry/nobles in their own rights.

Serfs - essentially indentured servants (but not slaves).Usually because of a large debt, they agreed to this indentured servitude until they could get themselves out of debt (few ever succeeded). Serfs were given a plot of land and some basic supplies by a Lord and they would work and maintain the Lord's property (land, animals, fences, etc) and pay taxes, in exchange for security and minimal wages.

Slaves - Technically a sub-class of peasant that was treated more like property; although some slavery existed in the Early Middle Ages, the practice was slowly dying out even then and was rare or unknown by the Late Middle Ages.

PEASANT

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