Coins

Coins (also known as gold, gold pieces, or gp) are the most common form of currency in RuneScape. 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!"(the examine text remains the same even for a single coin stack exceeding 99,999 if it is placed on the floor.

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 it is impossible for players to notice it.

Terminology


Beside coins, players commonly refer to the RuneScape currency as gold, gold pieces, gp, cash, or money. Alternate terms for coins are occasionally used by NPCs in RuneScape.

Stacking
One thousand coins (1,000) is usually called 1k. Similar to the metric system, the "k" stands for "kilo," which is Greek for "thousand." Likewise one million coins is often called 1 mil or 1M, and one billion coins is referred to as 1bil or 1B. On German-language servers, the symbol for "k" is changed to "T", since "Tausend" is German for thousand.

A stack of gold has a small, coloured text on the upper-left hand corner of the stack. With larger stacks of coins—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.

A stack of coins that uses a 'K' or 'M' identifier always rounds down to the integer multiple. For example, 15.9M is shown as 15M. This protects players receiving the coins in trade from being cheated by rounded values, e.g. A player receiving 15M can be guaranteed that the stack is not just 14.5M rounded up.



Maximum limits
The maximum amount of coins that players may hold in a single stack is 2,147,483,647 due to the usage of the signed 32 bit integer data type (231- 1). In terms of actual coins it is possible to store money in the bank, inventory, money pouch, GE, Mahogany prize chest, Treasure chest (Carnillean Rising) and kingdom of Miscellania (7.5M max) giving an absolute total of 23,629,820,117 stored - eleven max-stacks plus 7.5 million.

Players with wealth exceeding this amount usually choose to either invest their money in discontinued items, or spirit shards, or another item of high market liquidity. Shards are worth a static amount of 25 coins and can be sold to the pet store in Yanille for such amount, and therefore are the typically chosen currency when coins are no longer an option.

Coins in Daemonheim
Coins in Daemonheim used to be similar to regular coins, but with the money pouch update on 6 December 2011 they were renamed to Rusty coins and were recoloured to grey. They were later recoloured to orange to prevent them being missed on the floor. They have a different examine and are destroyed upon leaving. The only use coins have in Daemonheim is to buy items from the Smuggler. 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 about them from the Smuggler, he says: "Oh, they're nothing. You can give them all to me, if you want."

Money pouch
The Money pouch was added on 6 December 2011. You can store up to 2,147,483,647 coins inside. If you die anywhere, even in the Wilderness, the money will not be dropped. You can withdraw at any time, and add money anywhere outside of the Wilderness. It is protected by the bank PIN, if it has been set. It cannot be accessed while Dungeoneering or while playing some minigames, such as Stealing Creation and Soul Wars.

Making money through skills
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 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.

Buying RuneScape coins
Some players purchase RuneScape coins in exchange for real-world money from 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 RuneScape forbids the trading of RuneScape items for items or services outside of RuneScape. Doing so may result in a permanent ban.

Trivia

 * In RuneScape Classic the same image is used regardless of the number of coins dropped. Often the only way to know how many coins are on the ground is to pick them up.
 * According to Gypsy Aris, in the 4th age coins were made of silver.
 * The maximum price one can put up on the Grand Exchange is 2,147,483,647 coins. Any offer greater than this will simply read "Too high!" where the total price would normally be shown.
 * 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 (e.g. Misthalin).
 * 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. Also, although "Coins are already made of gold.", you cannot convert gold bar or other gold items into coins besides alchemy.
 * When you kill an NPC that drops coins and you kill another one in the same spot and it too drops coins, the coins will stack. This phenomenon does not occur with revenants.
 * With a Squeal of Fortune update, it was once possible to win 600 million coins; the largest single source of spontaneous coins in the game excluding coinshare (coins received through trade find their source from another player, and are thus not considered spontaneously created).