When you die, your soul is teleported to the sanctuary, but your corpse remains at the spot where you died.  All of your items in your inventory, including your silver, will be in your corpse at that spot. 

Be careful when returning to your corpse.  The NPC that you were fighting may still be aggressive and attack you again.  Either be healed when you return, or ask a friend to retrieve your corpse for you.  You don’t want to risk dying again from a lucky hit.