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The Treasure Table is designed for hordes for a group of Player-heroes. In most cases, the Company defeated the monster who had the horde.

Bard defeated Smaug, and brought his army to The Lonely Mountain. Thorin send word to his kinsmen, and the Dwarves' army came to the Lonely Mountain. The Elves wanted their piece of the action as well. That's a lot more shares than 13 Dwarves and 1 Hobbit.

The same Laketown supplement put forward the idea that Smaug had a hoard in the region of at least 100 000 and perhaps up to 1,000,000 Treasure.* Of course, no breakdown of its composition was given. Did the number implied include the value of the gems? Or other manufactured goods (magical harps, Bladorthin's spears, etc)?
"One fourteenth share, SETTING ASIDE THE GEMS, " was still a great amount given to Bard after the battle.


* EDIT Rats! Now I check I can't find it. Will look further!

How do you convert Treasure into Treasure Rating?

Gold as coins would be useful in a CASH economy: but not so flexible inside a Woodman, Elf or Beorning community. Instead, Gold might well be used to manufacture an ornament in those communities, and so a small piece can have a much higher value than simply its melted down weight would have been.

How do we recognise the wealthy? They spend their Treasure and we see the products of that spending.
Though I never liked the background accountancy that went with TOR1e (to maintain Standing at the End of the Year), it is some lip service paid to the needs of living, and of being Prosperous, or Rich.

The same Laketown supplement suggested that 2 Treasure would keep you well off for a month. Implying 24 Treasure per year, and therefore 2400 Treasure to be Rich throughout a hobbit's lifetime. Bilbo could fit 2400 coins easily into two small chests: which then went on his pony. If you have followed my arguement so far, then 2400 Treasure = 10 Load and not 2400 Load.
And 90 Treasure is not enough to make one particularly wealthy for long.

1 chest was silver if I recall correctly.

Your point still holds though.

I remember I had worked on this subject. Globally, 1 TP = 1£ = 240d = 1 pound = 480gr (which made silver penny roughly 2gr each). A big gold piéces enough for counting as a 1 TP should weight 36gr (I used some bi-metalism currency in medieval europe, and give a arbitrary coefficient of gold rarity in Middle-earth).

You can see that when it come to gross weight, gold is 13 times less cumbersome per TP. However, TOR 1 made clear that TP encombrement is not just encombrement, but the toll necessery to wrap, think of, carry, use your TP. To alleviate thing, I exclusively use 1 TP equal 1 load, gold pieces are a separate count when PC carry them.

I assume that with 1£ you can feed a person for 1 year.

The same Laketown supplement put forward the idea that Smaug had a hoard in the region of at least 100 000 and perhaps up to 1,000,000 Treasure.* Of course, no breakdown of its composition was given. Did the number implied include the value of the gems? Or other manufactured goods (magical harps, Bladorthin's spears, etc)?
"One fourteenth share, SETTING ASIDE THE GEMS, " was still a great amount given to Bard after the battle.


* EDIT Rats! Now I check I can't find it. Will look further!

.
I just came across this at CBR: Lord of the Rings’ Smaug Is Middle-Earth’s Richest Character - So How Much Is He Worth?

Thanks for the article reference O-S!
I can only find that a typical Old Dragon has about 1000 Treasure in their hoards. (Erebor sourcebook). Maybe I am thinking of a forum post or other fan stuff.

However, as O-S article suggests, Smaug's hoard was exceptional. Bilbo was reluctant to carry it all up!