Don't worry about it. Render the treasure as per treasure parcels, and give the rest as a plot token which represents the rest of the treasure in the narrative of your game.
Dump most of the treasure parcels for the level at the end of the encounter. That means the dragon will be sleeping on about ninety thousand gold, not counting magic items. Beyond that, money in late paragon is almost entirely pointless with magic item rarity rules. Healing potions already cost as much as a small town.
What I'd recommend is, on top of focusing most of the level's treasure parcels on the hoard, say: "there's a lot more money here, I'll be giving you this level's money all in a lump, but because there's more than that, each of you get a 'plot token.' These plot tokens represent you spending massive amounts of money to affect some change onto the world. How do you want to spend them?"
By treating the hoard by treasure rules, you continue to maintain the character-required levels of wealth and other nonsense. By giving most of the hoard as "plot tokens" you explicitly acknowledge that "Hey, the characters have done something special here" and reward them by giving them a stake in the world.
By late paragon, most characters likely have pocket kingdoms (or equivalent) and are heading into the multiverse-spanning epic levels. Don't worry too much about "cash."
Example uses of plot tokens in the game that I played:
- I'd like a castle now.
- We, the group, want to found a city.
- I'm going to establish a thieves guild.
- We'll buy another airship.
The beauty of most of these requests is that they inevitably lead to more adventures. Not only that, but the plot resources implicit in these things lead to fantastic backdrops of "As your city's army battles it out with the tainted creatures of the world around the iceberg, you head inside." This investment-in-world also gave the paragon-epic characters reasons to fight without needing to deal with the standard epic quest-giver problem.
If you absolutely must give treasure qua treasure beyond the 90k in gold, gems, and art, consider a "ritualized residuum" substance. With normal residuum, casters can only create common magic items. With this stuff, say because a dragon had been using it for a bed for umpteen years, it can be used to enchant uncommon items of the players choice. You can then make the magical crystals which contain the "ritualized residuum" rather bulky, which gives an endless floor of twilit sparkly magic rocks.
Given that (the never considered size) of gold pieces in earlier editions was 1.5 to 3 times the size of one of our 50 cent pieces ninety to a hundred and fifty thousand of them is... not too bad for a floor covering. Feel free to emphasise how many there are by not counting them but providing the means for a quick fermi calculation as to their quantity.
Analysis of AD&D treasure types.
There are considerably more monsters for AD&D so here is a doc that lists out each monsters.
A is no longer the Man Treasure Type, is not commonly used either being reserved for the Lich, Locathah, Men Bandits, Squid Giant, and Troglodytes
B to F are still pretty much like their OD&D counterpart with the same rough ascending order of value.
G is no longer just for dwarves. Elves are thrown in as well as a bunch of other creatures.
H is still the hoard treasure for Dragons. Interesting the white dragons don't get this treasure type. Along with the Dragons the Archdevil Geryon and the Guardian Naga have this treasure type.
I Interestingly the Roc has been removed from I but more creatures were assigned to this treasure type than OD&D. It also was used a lot with creatures with multiple treasure types, probably because of the Gem and Jewelry values.
Now to the new types
J to N are meant to be assigned to individual monsters. When listed as part of a lair it looks to be incidental treasure. This especially clear for the various varieties of Giant Spiders.
O and P are low value coin treasure types, O is copper and silver, while P is silver and electrum
Q is a used a lot and in conjunction with other treasure types, It is the Gem treasure type.
R treasure type is similar to G but without any magic items.
S is the potion treasure type
T is the Scroll treasure type
U is a high value treasure type with Gems, Jewelry and magic items.
The elite monsters that get this are Orcus, Asmodeus, Tiamat the Chromatic Dragon, and interestingly enough Ixitxachitl Guards and Androsphinxs.
V is just magic items
W is similar to G and R but with map instead of magic items. It only used for the Men, Buccaneers.
X is miscellaneous magic items plus a potion, it been assigned to a lot of monster in conjunction with other treasure types.
Y is just gold pieces
Z is similar to H with a smaller number of magic items the monsters that get this are Men Dervishes, Men Nomads, and Will-o-the-wisp. Looks like there is a lot of wealth hidden underneath those camel sacks.
Best Answer
Treasure isn’t just money, it has inherent value on its own. No one will take you seriously as a goblin king without a proper jewel-encrusted crown and an evil-looking magic sword to beat up your foes with. Since goblins are not known for their crafting skills, any luxuries or jewelry or magic items are going to come from treasure.
If I was a goblin chief, I might prefer a silver tiara (depending on how it looked) to a pile of gold because, while I could use that gold to buy food or weapons, there are other ways to get those things. The status and reputation that would be gained from a finely crafted crown are much more valuable.
Plus it looks awesome, which is not an insignificant thing.