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Gold-Silver-Copper Standard: Difference between revisions
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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.
When using the Gold-Silver-Copper Standard, expect the coins to use a decimal system -- a coin will be worth ten times the denomination below it and one tenth the denomination above it, so that 1 gold = 10 silver = 100 copper (though occasionally units of 100 are used instead of 10). This has absolutely no basis in fact -- even if coins were minted to deliberately have this relationship, the prices of metals varies, and the "exchange rate" between different coins would fluctuate with time just as exchange rates between currencies do. This is generally an [[Acceptable Break From Reality]], as very few people would be interested in doing "realistic" calculations of this nature, [[Writers Cannot Do Math|especially writers]].
The trope title is a reference to the [[wikipedia: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]].
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== Anime ==
* ''[[Spice and Wolf]]'' has... far too many currency systems to even remember, but their values are definitely based on gold and silver content. More important than that, however, is the trust that the traders give to the coin. A tiny shift in precious metal content can lead to huge shift in value; very much like it used to be in real life, in fact.
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* ''[[Harry Potter]]'' uses gold, silver, and bronze coins as money in the wizarding world; they're called [[Fictional Currency|galleons, sickles, and knuts]], respectively. Their relative values are not decimalized, but rather have 17 sickles to the galleon and 29 knuts to the sickle, presumably to make their system similar to the [[Old Money|pre-decimalized British currency]] (or perhaps as another way of making the wizarding world whimsical/whacky).
** Deconstructed in the fanfic ''[[Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality]]'', where Harry quickly realizes that since the wizarding world fixes the exchange rate of precious metals in a different way that the Muggle world, he could quickly become rich by buying and selling cyclically between the two worlds.
** ''[[Thinking In Little Green Boxes]]'' also deconstructs this, with Harry withdrawing a large chunk of his wizard account to buy "useful" real world things.
* ''[[Gor]]'' has gold and silver [[Fictional Currency|Tarns]], and silver and copper [[Fictional Currency|Tarsks]]. A still smaller unit of exchange is the "Tarsk-Bit". Gold double-tarns are mentioned at least once - in ''Assassin of Gor'', the hero offers to up the stakes in a street Kaissa game to a tarn of gold and of double weight if the blind chessmaster, who is losing deliberately, can find a win; and this represents more than a year's winnings for a Player.
* ''[[Dragonlance]]'' plays it straight at first, but subverts the standard after the Cataclysm by having ''iron'' become the coin of choice.
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== Video Games ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Dark Age of Camelot]]'' has mythril, platinum, then the other three. Copper trades up to silver and silver to gold at 100:1, gold to platinum and platinum to mythril at 1000:1.
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' uses gold, silver, and copper coins at a ratio of 100:1. These rarely appear by name, however; instead, pictures of yellow, gray, and brown coins appear next to the amounts, so a price of 16 gold 47 silver 33 copper would appear as "16 {picture of gold coin} 47 {picture of silver coin} 33 {picture of copper coin}". Exchanges between the various denominations happens automatically; if your character is carrying 90 copper coins and then picks up 20 more copper coins, his inventory will show 1 silver 10 copper (not 110 copper).
* ''[[Dragon Age Origins]]'' uses the 100:1 ratio. Gold coins are referred to as ''sovereigns'', while copper coins are known as ''[[Old Money|bits]]''.
* In ''[[Spellforce]]'', the 100:1 ratio applies, but the game doesn't automatically exchange lower denominations for higher when appropriate. This can lead to the player ostensibly carrying around tens of thousands of copper pieces.
* Many MUDs would have this as a default setting. The ratios would be juggled slightly: say, 20 silver to 1 gold, 5 gold to 1 platinum.
* The [[Drakensang]] games use this ratio, but name the coins for historical currencies: the [[wikipedia:Ducat|ducat]], [[wikipedia:Taler|taler]], and [[wikipedia:Farthing (British coin)|farthing]]. (This can be jarring for players who recognize the ducat, thaler, and farthing, and are expecting them to convert to each other at their historical rates.)
* [[Terraria]] uses copper, silver, gold, and platinum coins. 100 coins of a lower denomination are equal to one higher-denomination coin. In fact, for ease of storage, 100 coins of a lower denomination can be ''crafted into'' a higher-denomination coin. How you craft a lot of copper into a little silver (or silver into gold, etc) is [[MST3K Mantra|best not thought about too much]].
* Each town in ''[[The Game of the Ages]]'' has just one coinage, but the first has copper, the second silver and the third gold.
* The ''[[Quest for Glory]]'' series generally uses a two-coin money system with a decimal exchange rate between the denominations. The games also keep track of the total weight of the player's coins on hand.
** The first game used Silver and Gold coins, with 10 silvers equal to one gold.
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