How many copper coins fit inside a cubic foot?












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I have a Wizard who is level 5, currently running in a pirate campaign (homebrew), and I thought about some scams I could pull to earn the ship some extra coinage whenever we touched port to resupply or whatever. I have the School of Transmutation, and I was thinking of turning copper coins into silver ones using Minor Alchemy.
In the Player's Handbook it states that I can take a cubic foot of non-magical material and transform it into a different listed substance (wood, stone, iron, copper, silver).



Now, I talked to the DM and he said that that would be acceptable, as long as I do not abuse it. At later levels, I might (if this works, and assuming the DM approves) take it up a notch, like copper coins to gold coins.



However, we got to talking: just how many copper coins would it take to make a cubic foot? We know that 50 coins equal a pound, but... That is about it.



Is there any official rulings that I am missing or something really obvious I am overlooking?










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    $begingroup$


    I have a Wizard who is level 5, currently running in a pirate campaign (homebrew), and I thought about some scams I could pull to earn the ship some extra coinage whenever we touched port to resupply or whatever. I have the School of Transmutation, and I was thinking of turning copper coins into silver ones using Minor Alchemy.
    In the Player's Handbook it states that I can take a cubic foot of non-magical material and transform it into a different listed substance (wood, stone, iron, copper, silver).



    Now, I talked to the DM and he said that that would be acceptable, as long as I do not abuse it. At later levels, I might (if this works, and assuming the DM approves) take it up a notch, like copper coins to gold coins.



    However, we got to talking: just how many copper coins would it take to make a cubic foot? We know that 50 coins equal a pound, but... That is about it.



    Is there any official rulings that I am missing or something really obvious I am overlooking?










    share|improve this question









    New contributor




    Bookwyrm is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
    Check out our Code of Conduct.







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      1












      1








      1





      $begingroup$


      I have a Wizard who is level 5, currently running in a pirate campaign (homebrew), and I thought about some scams I could pull to earn the ship some extra coinage whenever we touched port to resupply or whatever. I have the School of Transmutation, and I was thinking of turning copper coins into silver ones using Minor Alchemy.
      In the Player's Handbook it states that I can take a cubic foot of non-magical material and transform it into a different listed substance (wood, stone, iron, copper, silver).



      Now, I talked to the DM and he said that that would be acceptable, as long as I do not abuse it. At later levels, I might (if this works, and assuming the DM approves) take it up a notch, like copper coins to gold coins.



      However, we got to talking: just how many copper coins would it take to make a cubic foot? We know that 50 coins equal a pound, but... That is about it.



      Is there any official rulings that I am missing or something really obvious I am overlooking?










      share|improve this question









      New contributor




      Bookwyrm is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.







      $endgroup$




      I have a Wizard who is level 5, currently running in a pirate campaign (homebrew), and I thought about some scams I could pull to earn the ship some extra coinage whenever we touched port to resupply or whatever. I have the School of Transmutation, and I was thinking of turning copper coins into silver ones using Minor Alchemy.
      In the Player's Handbook it states that I can take a cubic foot of non-magical material and transform it into a different listed substance (wood, stone, iron, copper, silver).



      Now, I talked to the DM and he said that that would be acceptable, as long as I do not abuse it. At later levels, I might (if this works, and assuming the DM approves) take it up a notch, like copper coins to gold coins.



      However, we got to talking: just how many copper coins would it take to make a cubic foot? We know that 50 coins equal a pound, but... That is about it.



      Is there any official rulings that I am missing or something really obvious I am overlooking?







      dnd-5e class-feature wizard economy






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      Bookwyrm is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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      edited 12 mins ago









      SevenSidedDie

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      asked 1 hour ago









      BookwyrmBookwyrm

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          3 Answers
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          active

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          8












          $begingroup$

          You can only transmute one coin at a time



          Other answers have given you good estimates of the number of coins that will fit in a cubic foot, but that doesn't matter for your purposes, because you're missing an important limitation of the Minor Alchemy feature: you can only transmute one object at a time:




          Starting at 2nd level when you select this school, you can temporarily alter the physical properties of one nonmagical object, [...] After 1 hour, or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell), the material reverts to its original substance.




          So you can't transmute a pile of coins all at once. You can spend 10 minutes transmuting a single coin, but as soon as you transmute a second one, you will lose concentration on the first one, causing it to revert.






          share|improve this answer









          $endgroup$





















            0












            $begingroup$


            • Copper is 8.96 g per cm^3. That means a copper ingot with one cubic feet volume is 559 lbs.

            • A heap of copper coins is no solid ingot. As a first approximation, imagine there are stacks of cylinders. A cylinder 1" high and 1" in diameter has a volume of 0.78 cubic inches. (A coin is flatter, but think of it as stacks of a dozen or so.) That means the heap is 436 lbs.

            • 436 lbs. of coins are 21,800 copper pieces. Call it 20,000 because they won't be stacked and aligned perfectly.


            But there is a problem. This scheme will yield silver coins with the image of a copper coin. Everybody would suspect that it is a copper coin coated with a thin silver layer. Much smarter to take a mixed heap of copper goods and to transform them. This could include a few ingots, but also copper kettles and the like. Well, perhaps not copper roof slates, because nobody has silver roof slates.






            share|improve this answer









            $endgroup$





















              0












              $begingroup$

              We can solve this with MATH.



              The density of copper is about 9 g/ml, so a cubic foot of solid copper is about 550 pounds, or 27,500 coins.



              If the coins are a uniform size and you stack them, then push the stacks tightly together, the packing factor is the same as for circles in a plane, about 90%. This gives you about 25,000 coins.



              If you have a giant sack of loose change, the packing factor is somewhere in the vicinity of 0.6, for about 16,000 coins.






              share|improve this answer









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                3 Answers
                3






                active

                oldest

                votes








                3 Answers
                3






                active

                oldest

                votes









                active

                oldest

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                active

                oldest

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                8












                $begingroup$

                You can only transmute one coin at a time



                Other answers have given you good estimates of the number of coins that will fit in a cubic foot, but that doesn't matter for your purposes, because you're missing an important limitation of the Minor Alchemy feature: you can only transmute one object at a time:




                Starting at 2nd level when you select this school, you can temporarily alter the physical properties of one nonmagical object, [...] After 1 hour, or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell), the material reverts to its original substance.




                So you can't transmute a pile of coins all at once. You can spend 10 minutes transmuting a single coin, but as soon as you transmute a second one, you will lose concentration on the first one, causing it to revert.






                share|improve this answer









                $endgroup$


















                  8












                  $begingroup$

                  You can only transmute one coin at a time



                  Other answers have given you good estimates of the number of coins that will fit in a cubic foot, but that doesn't matter for your purposes, because you're missing an important limitation of the Minor Alchemy feature: you can only transmute one object at a time:




                  Starting at 2nd level when you select this school, you can temporarily alter the physical properties of one nonmagical object, [...] After 1 hour, or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell), the material reverts to its original substance.




                  So you can't transmute a pile of coins all at once. You can spend 10 minutes transmuting a single coin, but as soon as you transmute a second one, you will lose concentration on the first one, causing it to revert.






                  share|improve this answer









                  $endgroup$
















                    8












                    8








                    8





                    $begingroup$

                    You can only transmute one coin at a time



                    Other answers have given you good estimates of the number of coins that will fit in a cubic foot, but that doesn't matter for your purposes, because you're missing an important limitation of the Minor Alchemy feature: you can only transmute one object at a time:




                    Starting at 2nd level when you select this school, you can temporarily alter the physical properties of one nonmagical object, [...] After 1 hour, or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell), the material reverts to its original substance.




                    So you can't transmute a pile of coins all at once. You can spend 10 minutes transmuting a single coin, but as soon as you transmute a second one, you will lose concentration on the first one, causing it to revert.






                    share|improve this answer









                    $endgroup$



                    You can only transmute one coin at a time



                    Other answers have given you good estimates of the number of coins that will fit in a cubic foot, but that doesn't matter for your purposes, because you're missing an important limitation of the Minor Alchemy feature: you can only transmute one object at a time:




                    Starting at 2nd level when you select this school, you can temporarily alter the physical properties of one nonmagical object, [...] After 1 hour, or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell), the material reverts to its original substance.




                    So you can't transmute a pile of coins all at once. You can spend 10 minutes transmuting a single coin, but as soon as you transmute a second one, you will lose concentration on the first one, causing it to revert.







                    share|improve this answer












                    share|improve this answer



                    share|improve this answer










                    answered 52 mins ago









                    Ryan ThompsonRyan Thompson

                    8,60222671




                    8,60222671

























                        0












                        $begingroup$


                        • Copper is 8.96 g per cm^3. That means a copper ingot with one cubic feet volume is 559 lbs.

                        • A heap of copper coins is no solid ingot. As a first approximation, imagine there are stacks of cylinders. A cylinder 1" high and 1" in diameter has a volume of 0.78 cubic inches. (A coin is flatter, but think of it as stacks of a dozen or so.) That means the heap is 436 lbs.

                        • 436 lbs. of coins are 21,800 copper pieces. Call it 20,000 because they won't be stacked and aligned perfectly.


                        But there is a problem. This scheme will yield silver coins with the image of a copper coin. Everybody would suspect that it is a copper coin coated with a thin silver layer. Much smarter to take a mixed heap of copper goods and to transform them. This could include a few ingots, but also copper kettles and the like. Well, perhaps not copper roof slates, because nobody has silver roof slates.






                        share|improve this answer









                        $endgroup$


















                          0












                          $begingroup$


                          • Copper is 8.96 g per cm^3. That means a copper ingot with one cubic feet volume is 559 lbs.

                          • A heap of copper coins is no solid ingot. As a first approximation, imagine there are stacks of cylinders. A cylinder 1" high and 1" in diameter has a volume of 0.78 cubic inches. (A coin is flatter, but think of it as stacks of a dozen or so.) That means the heap is 436 lbs.

                          • 436 lbs. of coins are 21,800 copper pieces. Call it 20,000 because they won't be stacked and aligned perfectly.


                          But there is a problem. This scheme will yield silver coins with the image of a copper coin. Everybody would suspect that it is a copper coin coated with a thin silver layer. Much smarter to take a mixed heap of copper goods and to transform them. This could include a few ingots, but also copper kettles and the like. Well, perhaps not copper roof slates, because nobody has silver roof slates.






                          share|improve this answer









                          $endgroup$
















                            0












                            0








                            0





                            $begingroup$


                            • Copper is 8.96 g per cm^3. That means a copper ingot with one cubic feet volume is 559 lbs.

                            • A heap of copper coins is no solid ingot. As a first approximation, imagine there are stacks of cylinders. A cylinder 1" high and 1" in diameter has a volume of 0.78 cubic inches. (A coin is flatter, but think of it as stacks of a dozen or so.) That means the heap is 436 lbs.

                            • 436 lbs. of coins are 21,800 copper pieces. Call it 20,000 because they won't be stacked and aligned perfectly.


                            But there is a problem. This scheme will yield silver coins with the image of a copper coin. Everybody would suspect that it is a copper coin coated with a thin silver layer. Much smarter to take a mixed heap of copper goods and to transform them. This could include a few ingots, but also copper kettles and the like. Well, perhaps not copper roof slates, because nobody has silver roof slates.






                            share|improve this answer









                            $endgroup$




                            • Copper is 8.96 g per cm^3. That means a copper ingot with one cubic feet volume is 559 lbs.

                            • A heap of copper coins is no solid ingot. As a first approximation, imagine there are stacks of cylinders. A cylinder 1" high and 1" in diameter has a volume of 0.78 cubic inches. (A coin is flatter, but think of it as stacks of a dozen or so.) That means the heap is 436 lbs.

                            • 436 lbs. of coins are 21,800 copper pieces. Call it 20,000 because they won't be stacked and aligned perfectly.


                            But there is a problem. This scheme will yield silver coins with the image of a copper coin. Everybody would suspect that it is a copper coin coated with a thin silver layer. Much smarter to take a mixed heap of copper goods and to transform them. This could include a few ingots, but also copper kettles and the like. Well, perhaps not copper roof slates, because nobody has silver roof slates.







                            share|improve this answer












                            share|improve this answer



                            share|improve this answer










                            answered 1 hour ago









                            o.m.o.m.

                            36013




                            36013























                                0












                                $begingroup$

                                We can solve this with MATH.



                                The density of copper is about 9 g/ml, so a cubic foot of solid copper is about 550 pounds, or 27,500 coins.



                                If the coins are a uniform size and you stack them, then push the stacks tightly together, the packing factor is the same as for circles in a plane, about 90%. This gives you about 25,000 coins.



                                If you have a giant sack of loose change, the packing factor is somewhere in the vicinity of 0.6, for about 16,000 coins.






                                share|improve this answer









                                $endgroup$


















                                  0












                                  $begingroup$

                                  We can solve this with MATH.



                                  The density of copper is about 9 g/ml, so a cubic foot of solid copper is about 550 pounds, or 27,500 coins.



                                  If the coins are a uniform size and you stack them, then push the stacks tightly together, the packing factor is the same as for circles in a plane, about 90%. This gives you about 25,000 coins.



                                  If you have a giant sack of loose change, the packing factor is somewhere in the vicinity of 0.6, for about 16,000 coins.






                                  share|improve this answer









                                  $endgroup$
















                                    0












                                    0








                                    0





                                    $begingroup$

                                    We can solve this with MATH.



                                    The density of copper is about 9 g/ml, so a cubic foot of solid copper is about 550 pounds, or 27,500 coins.



                                    If the coins are a uniform size and you stack them, then push the stacks tightly together, the packing factor is the same as for circles in a plane, about 90%. This gives you about 25,000 coins.



                                    If you have a giant sack of loose change, the packing factor is somewhere in the vicinity of 0.6, for about 16,000 coins.






                                    share|improve this answer









                                    $endgroup$



                                    We can solve this with MATH.



                                    The density of copper is about 9 g/ml, so a cubic foot of solid copper is about 550 pounds, or 27,500 coins.



                                    If the coins are a uniform size and you stack them, then push the stacks tightly together, the packing factor is the same as for circles in a plane, about 90%. This gives you about 25,000 coins.



                                    If you have a giant sack of loose change, the packing factor is somewhere in the vicinity of 0.6, for about 16,000 coins.







                                    share|improve this answer












                                    share|improve this answer



                                    share|improve this answer










                                    answered 59 mins ago









                                    Mark WellsMark Wells

                                    6,35011745




                                    6,35011745






















                                        Bookwyrm is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










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