Coins

 Coins (also known as gold, gold pieces, or gp) are the most common form of currency in RuneScape. They can be used to represent the value of virtually every single item in the game, as well as various services offered throughout. They are the most often traded item; players prefer to trade their services or items in exchange for coins more than any other item. When the number of coins in a single stack exceeds 99,999, then the examine text reads "____ x Coins", where the blank is the exact number of coins in the stack; if there is less than that, the examine text reads "Lovely money!".

In RuneScape, coins appear as small gold coins, also noted by some people that they look like nuggets, roughly cylindrical, and are stackable. In Grim Tales, it is revealed that coins have more intricate designs imprinted on their faces, although they usually appear small, making it difficult for players to notice it.

According to Saradomin, coins are minted by the Fief. He doesn't give more detail as to who or what the Fief is, but judging from the meaning of "Fief" it is likely to be one of the human kingdoms (i.e. Misthalin).

Not surprisingly, alchemy spells cannot be cast on coins. If a player attempts it, a message will inform the player that "Coins are already made of gold...". You can, however, turn other gold items (such as gold ore and gold bars) into coins using alchemy spells.

When you kill an NPC that drops coins and you kill another one in the same spot and it too drops coins, the coins stack.

Terminology


Beside coins, players commonly refer to the RuneScape currency as gold, gold pieces, gp, cash, money or credits.

Larger amounts
One thousand coins (1,000) is usually called 1k. Similar to the metric system, the "k" stands for "kilo," which is Greek for "thousand." On German-language servers, the symbol for "k" is changed to "T", since "Tausend" is German for thousand.

One million (1,000,000) coins is usually called 1M or 1mil. Both can be made into larger numbers, such as 300k meaning 300,000 coins.

One billion coins is referred to as 1bil/1bill or 1B. No stack can hold more than 2,147,483,647 coins.

A stack of gold has a small, coloured text on the upper-left hand corner of the stack. With larger stacks of money—as with all stackable items—both the colour of the text and the stack's examine text change depending on the amount of gold in the stack.

Maximum Limits
2,147,483,647 (or 231-1) is the highest number that it is possible to store in a 32-bit signed integer in the Java programming language. Consequently, this is the maximum amount of coins (and indeed any other stackable item) that can be stored in a stack. If a player attempts to withdraw or pick up coins while carrying the maximum amount of coins, it is stated that there is not enough inventory space. In terms of actual coins it is possible to store money in the bank, inventory, GE, familiar and kingdoms (7.5M max) giving an absolute total of 19,334,852,823 stored - nine max-stacks plus 7.5 million.

Holding Overflow
If a player reaches the maximum amount of coins, he or she can store extra money either in items or within the Grand Exchange by placing an offer, canceling the offer, and leaving the coins in the collection box. Each Grand Exchange slot can also hold 2,147,483,647 coins. To avoid using up Grand Exchange slots, extra money can also be spent in the purchase of items that are expected to not go down in price (such as items that are held up by a high alchemy value). A perfect item to buy to store extra money are Spirit Shards, although it is a member item. (this is a cash equivalent - they can be easily mass bought and sold for a flat rate of 25 gp.) Considering the same limit applies to Spirit Shards, players can store the equivalent of 53,687,091,175 in a single slot by buying 2.147 billion spirit shards. Consequently, by buying 2.147 billion Spirit shards packs, 268,435,455,875,000 "coins" can be stored in a single slot.

Coins in Daemonheim
Coins in Daemonheim are similar to regular coins. Although they have a different examine and are destroyed upon leaving. The only use coins have in Daemonheim is to buy items from the Smuggler. This is most likely to be destroyed since the Dungeoneering Tutor stated that all items taken inside, then taken to another place will be gone, or destroyed, with the exception of bound (item(b)) items. The examine, which is They make the world go round is a reference to the common idiom used in the real world, Money makes the world go round. You can ask what you do with them from the Smuggler, but he says "Oh, they're nothing. You can give them all to me."

Alternate Names


Alternate terms for coins are occasionally used by NPCs in mainstream RuneScape. Examples of these include the following:


 * Bert's work rota quotes his wages as 50 GP for a 16-hour day - that's 3.125 GP an hour.
 * The brewer dwarf in Keldagrim says "GP" - the reason given is that (being a dwarf) he prefers to associate with gold at the expense of proper terminology
 * When the glassblower was added to Entrana, he always referred to coins as "gold pieces"
 * During The Giant Dwarf quest, Vermundi asks you for 200 credits.
 * The descriptions of Low Level Alchemy and High Level Alchemy read "converts an item into gold" and "converts an item into more gold" respectively - the word "gold" here refers to coins, which are added to those already in the inventory when the player casts the spell
 * There is a portrait of Postie Pete on a stamp whose value is quoted as "59gp".
 * When attempting to pass through the gates to Al-Kharid, right-clicking upon the gate in the past, gave the player the option to spend "10 gp" to go through
 * Luthas at the banana plantation on Karamja says "I'll pay you 30 gold"
 * When a player uses the Grand Exchange to buy or sell item(s), the price per item is listed as an amount in gp
 * The silk trader in Al Kharid prices silk at "3gp" instead of "3 coins"
 * The official RuneScape manual refers to coins as "gold pieces" many times (for example, the Leather crafting guide quotes tanning costs in "gold pieces")
 * The construction guide gives information on adding new rooms to a player-owned house, and includes the sentence: "Different rooms cost different amounts of gold, and have different Construction level requirements." Gold refers to coins here.
 * Mistag in the Dorgeshuun Mines will pay "x gold pieces"... for the iron and silver ores that you are carrying.
 * The bank guard in Draynor village will refer to coins as "gp" after you view the Wise Old Man's video taping. "...I want you to pay me 50gp first."
 * Before an update that removed a number of random events, Bob of Bob's Brilliant Axes used to quote axe repair prices in gp. For example, when he was handed a broken rune axe, he would say "This axe is quite badly damaged, but easy to repair. Would you like me to fix it for you for 427gp?"
 * When using the ring of charos (a) to reduce the magic carpet fare, both the player and the Rug Merchant refer to the reduced fare as being in "GP".
 * Gardener Gunnhild on Miscellania will sell rakes and iron sickles for "15 gp each".
 * All RuneScape Classic stores refer to coins as "gp."
 * When used on the Wise Old Man, he refers to them as "money".
 * On the Jagex corporate website under the parents guide, it refers to the currency in game as "gp".
 * When starting the Demon Slayer quest with Gypsy Aris, she asks you to "cross her palm with silver", when she is really asking for coins.

Coin spawns
Note: None of these spawns are very effective ways to get coins.
 * 3 coins respawn can be found from Varrock west bank basement, more can be telegrabbed from the locked room.
 * There are a few coin spawns in the room with Elvarg.
 * There are a few coin spawns in Taverley Dungeon near ghosts.
 * There are a few coin spawns in the Haunted Mine.
 * There are a few coin spawns in the King Black Dragon's den around the King Black Dragon.
 * There are a few coin spawns in the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon.
 * There are some 5-coin spawns in Varrock Sewers near the red spiders.
 * There is a 1-coin spawn in Varrock Sewers near the Level 3 to 6 Giant Rats.
 * Asking Anja or Hengel at Rimmington for some free stuff will lead to a long dialogue, followed by one of them giving 1 to 3 coins.
 * There are several coin spawns all over the Wilderness (for instance north of Edgeville)
 * There are 7 coins that spawn in the Edgeville Dungeon
 * There are 3 coin spawns in the Dwarven Mine by the 3 chests.
 * There are 2 coin spawns in the pen with the bear in the northeast corner of the Varrock Palace
 * There are a few coin spawns in the basement of Lumbridge Castle

Skills
See Money making guide for more details.

As money in RuneScape plays a necessity for all players, certain skills in the RuneScape community have gained popularity because of their potential to create profit for the player with a vast number of ways to do so. However, as with the introduction to the trade limit as well as the Grand Exchange, many of these skills became impossible to solely generate great amounts of money but this also allowed other lesser used skills to be in demand, though requiring very high levels. The following skills in order, whether commonly/less commonly used, currently reap the most amounts of profit per hour by various methods:


 * Runecrafting (appx. 1000k)
 * Thieving (appx. 650k-1000k)
 * Mining (appx. 800k)
 * Slayer (appx. 760k)
 * Woodcutting (appx. 300k)
 * Fishing (appx. 200k)

Buying RuneScape gold
Some players used to purchase RuneScape coins in exchange for real-world money using sites such as eBay or so-called "gold farmers". Although players could potentially gain monetary value within RuneScape by such means, this method is forbidden by Jagex: Rule 12 of the RuneScape website forbids the trading of RuneScape items for items or services outside of RuneScape. Doing so will result in a permanent ban, without any warning, most likely due to the fact that buying gold is considered a high-level offence.

Within RuneScape, there is a "trade limit" system that ensures both sides fulfil their end of the deal, by forcing the balance of the offer to not exceed 240K. Trading outside of RuneScape carries the risk of another party stealing your real-world money (or other items) and not completing the trade. People who fall victim to this have no recourse from Jagex, and indeed will probably be banned if they admit to having participated in such practices.

With the trade limits imposed with the Unbalanced Trade Removal update and other game changes, like the restriction of player killing to a small area in a few worlds, Jagex made it much harder to trade RuneScape gold for real-world money and vice versa.

Trivia

 * A stack of coins that is bigger than 99,999 does not show the exact quantity (e.g. 100,237 coins appears as 100k; 12,314,231 displays 12M), by right clicking and using the "Examine" option on the stack the exact amount in the inventory or bank is reported in chat. But, in any type of shop, examining the coins in inventory will always give the "Lovely money!" examine text.
 * The name for the item is "coins", not "coin". Thus, a single coin in a players bank, inventory, or on the ground will still be called "coins" by the game.
 * If you have about 1 or 100 coins dropped on the ground, they have a darker colour than if there were another amount of coins on the ground.
 * In Daemonheim, examining over 100k coins will still yield the examine text "They make the world go round".
 * The examine text "They make the world go round" could be a reference to the Cabaret song "Money".
 * In Runescape Classic, whenever coin(s) are dropped the amount of coins did not change the image. Therefore, it was impossible to know how much coins are on there ground without picking them up. This was (and still is) annoying to some players who attend drop parties.