Gold-Silver-Copper Standard: Difference between revisions

There is some [[Truth in Television]] to this. Gold and silver coins were used for much of history, and even modern day currencies often invoke this by making their highest denomination coins golden, their middle ones silvery, and their lowest ones copper or bronze. Obviously, gold is more valuable than silver, which is itself more valuable than copper or bronze, but the value of individual coins depends as much on the weight and purity of the coin as it does on the value of the metal itself -- this is rarely reflected in fiction. Also rarely used is multiple denominations of coin made out of the same metal; a gold coin weighing twice as much as another gold coin would be worth twice the amount, but don't expect to see anything besides a generic "gold piece" ever mentioned.

 

 

The trope title is a reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_standard gold standard], when paper money is set to be worth a fixed amount of gold, but the trope is otherwise unrelated to the concept. Expect to see the coins in a Gold Silver Copper Standard economy referred to as [metal] piece or [metal] coin; when they're given another name, it can overlap with [[Fictional Currency]]. [[Tasty Gold]] is related, for checking the purity of the gold coins. Often a [[Global Currency]], though that's [[Justified Trope|understandable]], as the value in the coins comes from the precious metal itself. May be combined with [[Silver Has Mystic Powers]] to make gold more (and bronze/copper less) powerful than silver. For settings where transactions are done almost exclusively in gold, see [[Cheap Gold Coins]].

 

== Anime ==