Which Items give a sense of economy

I've been playing D&D for about 3 years, DMing for 2, the gold economy has always felt a little bit stale to me. What items are popular to keep characters excited about getting gold? How do you figure out how much gold to give players for each encounter?

Gold per encounter depends entirely on what they are encountering. Highway bandits are poorer than evil wizards for example. It also depends on what the economy of your game looks like, is it a rich world with plenty of gold or is it a poorer area where 1 gold is alot? If you are unsure about the standard booty look at official campaigns from WoTC, see how they distribute their gold and items. Popular items are also very world dependent, character class and so on. But something my players always like are Immovable Rods, so usefull. But the standard is +1-3 weapon/armor and potions.

Gold at higher levels can often be somewhat a moot point anyway, 5e has it's rarity system and attunement caps to throttle the spending of players on high level and powerful items. At lower levels it depends on your setting like Vanguard says, if you are playing a low magic world then the economy should more accurately match that of medieval Europe with most people and therefore monsters having very little in terms of financial wealth but potentially with an accumulated wealth of 'heirlooms' or emergency potions etc. The top 1% however would have an abundance of items, money and gems but would rarely part with it. In a more magic rich environment I would rule that gold is a bit easier to come by, the economy naturally saturated by scrolls, potions and low level/borderline useless magic items. As a DM in that world I would ensure that the players have things to spend their money on that are in that borderline useless category but that flavour to their particular tastes... got a noble? How about this fine automatic tent, erects itself in seconds complete with camp bed and fire pit... yours for only 200gp, last one in stock! As they level and items before naturally harder to purchase (after-all, who in their right mind is going to sell a rare or higher item without a very good reason!) I try to give alternative ways to spend, let them buy, staff and run a ship/airship (they can then use that in the pursuit of desired high level items rumoured to be in the trove of a particular dragon etc). Let them set up a guildhall, hell, even found a town... being a hero is more than just slaying monsters and saving the world, its about the legacy ;) In terms of figuring out how much to give, don't over think it, give what feels right or use a generator/DMs Guide rules... PCs will always find a way to ruin all your plans so just roll with the punches and as long as everyone is having fun (including you!) then there is nothing to worry about. (Final note, the Roll20 forums are designed for discussing the VTT specifically so this thread might get closed by a mod at some point... Reddit is always a good shout for continuing this though)

Soap! My players love the banter with this special npc about what good the new lavender soap can bring.  I don't know D&D, but in what I play potions are expensive. This makes them good for random loot. Make sure there's the odd unlabeled one.  Herbs are the cheaper but less effective version of potions, so these are regularly on buying lists.  Food comes to mind. The specialty of the local market is always interesting. Makes the players wonder how this would taste.  They also use money regularly to pay for a smith or other craftspeople for modifications to their weapon. Or to buy a handwagon to carry all the stuff.  I don't give out gold for random encounters. Instead they can loot the borderline useless weapons or clothes and sell them for a quarter to a half the price that's in the book. When hired they get the standard amount of money a mercenary would get.