TARDIGRADE'S PROFILE

I think those last two points (utility and supply & demand) are very good ones. There are two other things that nearly always get ignored about money in RPGs. First, it's (normally) heavy, at least outside of present-day and SF settings. No paper money, no credit cards. If you find a chest full of coins in a dungeon, it'll be heavy and bulky. There are some small, light items with high value (gemstones) but they're non-divisible. This should place a realistic limit on the wealth a player can carry around. If he leaves the rest in a "safe place" - well, locks were really crappy back then. Banks get robbed. Problem solved.

Secondly, shopkeepers have finite cash reserves - sure, Trader Joe wants to buy your Axe of Slaying, but he doesn't keep 5,000 gold coins on the premises. To make a realistic offer he'll probably have to throw in other goods, maybe training, etc.

Of course, the issue here is "realistic" versus "fun". If players want to spend longer selling stuff from adventures than actually adventuring then they should be able to, but it's probably best to introduce at least one trader character early on so that players who don't care about squeezing every last copper out of their loot can just dump all their crud on him, he sells it on and takes a cut. Maybe he offers credit in his shop rather than a giant sack of heavy coins. Of course, it's very easy then to remove "excess" wealth - the trader gets greedy, or gets robbed, or whatever.

Alternatively, let them get rich. Adventurers take risks most people would pale at, and I don't really see a problem with them getting wealthy as a result once they've been doing it for a while. Limit what they can actually buy with it instead. If nobody in town sells plate mail it doesn't matter how much money you have, you still can't get it without a long journey (or trusting someone else to go get it for you, and hope they don't get robbed themselves or do a runner with your deposit). You could also impose legal restrictions on what certain people can own (not just the fantasy equivalent of firearms restrictions but potentially also sumptuary laws, that kind of thing). Maybe only one nation can forge steel and won't sell it to your country because you're at war, or maybe the technique for forging it was lost centuries ago. In this situation you could end up with adventurers who throw money around on big parties every time they get back from an adventure, but get looked down on by the local nobility, which sounds like a dynamic that has possibilities.

First post, by the way. Hello everyone!