Purse

Your purse holds the amount of gold pieces that you have, excluding any gold that you hid in a bag or other container. The amount of gold in your purse appears on the status line, or you can count it by pressing $|[$]. Your purse is available for making payments (to shopkeepers, to priests, to bribe demons, for example).

When a leprechaun steals your gold, the message is, "Your purse feels lighter."

Strategy
Gold in your purse is vulnerable. For example, a leprechaun might steal it. One of the effects of reading a spellbook but failing to learn the spell is, "You notice you have no gold!"

When you are in situations where you might lose your gold (like fighting leprechauns, reading spellbooks, or sitting on thrones), then you can protect your gold by first removing it from your purse. If you have a bag, then you could hide your gold in there. You could also stash your gold into a chest or large box, or just drop it on the floor.