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What is the literary or historical origin of the term "gold piece" to mean a gold coin? Was it used before D&D, or did D&D coin the term?

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    \$\begingroup\$ :| I think this particular question would be better off on English.StackExchange. They specialize in this kind of thing. Particularly since this question focuses on the term's origin, which is way, way, way before it's involvement in D&D. \$\endgroup\$
    – AceCalhoon
    Jun 14, 2012 at 19:15
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    \$\begingroup\$ Proving it clearly in use prior to D&D is pretty easily done - and beyond the scope of English.StackExchange. Since the term is now predominantly a gaming term, and there are some geeks here who do language, this feels more right, especially since this is not the first time I've seen the question on gamer sites. \$\endgroup\$
    – aramis
    Jun 15, 2012 at 5:23
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    \$\begingroup\$ Also, the question seems relevant to setting and worldbuilding, both of which are on-topic. \$\endgroup\$
    – GMJoe
    Jun 15, 2012 at 5:42

4 Answers 4

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The term definitely predates D&D - the term "twenty dollar gold piece" has been in use for the $20 Double Eagle and $10 Eagle coins of the late 19th century, and also the $5 gold coin, as well.

"Gold Piece" In Print

The term is used in the Lebanon Daily News, 1 Nov 1965, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, bottom, in an advert for old coins under the left column of text (to the right of the comics)

Four gold pieces: One (1) $20.00 gold piece, two (2) $10.00 gold pieces and one (1) $2.50 gold piece.

This alone establishes the phrase "gold piece" for gold coins in routine use prior to D&D. But let us press a little further back... say, 1913? Here's a quote from the 5 August 1913 Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, page 4, top of the third column:

The five cent piece ls the day laborer of our coinage. It la the hardest working and most successful bit at money In use In these United States. The twenty dollar gold piece Is very popular and is madly sought after In the best society; the five dollar bill has millions of friends and the hard silver dollar can be found nestling In the pocket of almost every man. But none of these like the five cent piece.

We thus have established a pattern of use for gold coins of being called "gold pieces" in the press, spanning over 5 decades; clearly not a D&D origin; not even viably a wargaming origin, for 1913 is the year of the first printing of H. G. Wells' Little Wars, the first commercially released set of wargaming rules in book form.

Searching Project Gutenberg, several ebooks have it in use...

These without clear denomination prefixed:

  • Pinocchio (1883, Tr. ??? )
    Author: Carlo Collodi, 1826-1890
    Translator: Carol Della Chiesa, 1887-
  • The Younger Set (1907)
    Author: Robert W. Chambers
  • A Drama on the Seashore
    Author: Honore de Balzac (1799-1850)
    Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley (1830-1908)
  • Tiger Cat (1938)
    Author: David H. Keller
  • Pâkia (1901)
    Author: Louis Becke

And several with clear denomination in dollars:

Piece

Piece is, according to several dictionaries, a common term for coins in general, of whatever denomination is specified. The quote below is excerpted from the etymology online page:

piece
early 13c., "fixed amount, measure, portion," from O.Fr. piece (11c.), from V.L. *pettia, probably from Gaulish (cf. Welsh peth "thing," Breton pez "piece"), from O.Celt. base *pett-.
[...]
Piece of Eight is the old name for the Spanish dollar (c.1600) of the value of 8 reals.

Commentary

It's pretty clear that it's a generic term for a gold coin, and for several US gold coins as well. In the US, it seems to be predominantly the popular $5 coin of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but can be used collectively for the $2.50, $5.00, $10.00 and $20.00 gold coins; The silver coins of similar values were $0.10, $0.25, $0.50, and $1.00. Note that, still to date, "2 bits" is $0.25... a reference to the not uncommon practice of breaking Pieces of Eight (Dollares, or Reals) into 8 "bits" of an eighth-dollare each... I suspect that this is the origin of the 20:1 Silver:Gold ratio in AD&D...

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  • \$\begingroup\$ So the wargames will celebrate their 100 year anniversary, curious. Brilliant answer! \$\endgroup\$
    – Maurycy
    Oct 20, 2012 at 7:15
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Yakk, from the Online Etymology Dictionary quoted on dictionary.com, the French word "piece" meant coin around the 12th century, and the term was used that way in English by 1570, and the Piece of Eight was made around the year 1600. c.1200, "fixed amount, measure, portion," from Old French piece "piece, bit portion; item; coin" (12c.) ... Piece as "a coin" is attested in English from 1570s, hence Piece of eight, old name for the Spanish dollar (c.1600) of the value of 8 reals. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jetpack
    Apr 21, 2018 at 23:47
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Yakk, here's an example from the 1300s: the Wycliffe Bible translation mentions "thirty pieces of silver". biblestudytools.com/wyc/matthew/26-15.html. According to Wikipedia, the original Greek was didn't specify which silver coin was meant. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jetpack
    Apr 26, 2018 at 15:33
  • \$\begingroup\$ I see my last quote wasn't from the original Wycliffe Bible and used more modern language. But another part of the Wycliffe Bible has "sixe hundrid `floreyns, ether peesis of gold" en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(Wycliffe)/2_Paralipomenon I think the original Hebrew just says "600 gold" and Wycliffe decided to specifically refer to the piece of gold or en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florin. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jetpack
    Aug 3, 2023 at 3:17
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Let's ask the Wiktionary.

Noun

A coin, especially one valued at less than the principal unit of currency.

It seems to be quite an old term:

Etymology

Middle English pece, from Anglo-Norman peece, peice et al. and Old French pece, piece et al., apparently from Late Latin *pettia, *pettium. Ultimate origin uncertain; perhaps from Transalpine Gaulish (compare Welsh peth, Breton pez (“thing”), Irish cuid (“part”)).

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    \$\begingroup\$ That Etymology makes no claim that the ancestral forms meant "coins". \$\endgroup\$
    – Yakk
    Feb 12, 2018 at 15:21
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The most important historical precedent for parceling gold into "pieces" is Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1881), an enormously popular work of fiction that was plundered and imitated by many authors in the following decades. While that work is more famous for the construction "pieces of eight," Treasure Island exemplifies usages like "pieces of gold" throughout to refer to pirate treasure. These precedents informed countless subsequent authors, especially authors of fantasy fiction, including Howard and Leiber. Conan, for example, knows of "men willing to sell their souls for a few gold pieces" in the 1930s. It is surely these usages that ended up informing the vocabulary of Dungeons & Dragons, as the authors of D&D cited these works specifically as influences.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Wait, are you claiming that Treasure Island invented "pieces of eight"? \$\endgroup\$
    – Yakk
    Feb 12, 2018 at 15:20
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I would say it is of historic origin.

Here in Sweden we had gold (and other valuable metal; copper was the most common) pieces that was simply weighed and that could be cut up if needed before we had coins.

At first it was simply a big hunk of metal later on it became "standard" sizes with stamps that guaranteed the weight and then after that came the coins (as we know them).

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