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Cheap Gold Coins: Difference between revisions

Cheap Gold Coins (view source)

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{{examples}}
== Anime & Manga ==
* Averted in ''[[Spice and Wolf (Light Novel)|Spice and Wolf]]'', where in one episode Lawrence has to exchange his gold coins for silver in order to buy clothing (the vendors wouldn't have change). Also one of the early plot arcs involves speculation on the silver content of one nation's coins.
 
== Comicbooks ==
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== Literature ==
* Mainly averted in ''[[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]]'', where the "gold coins" issued by the Ankh-Morpork banks actually contain less gold than seawater. Justified in the Agatean Empire (the [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|fantasy counterpart]] to Imperial China), where gold is a very common metal and is used for low-value coins. Played with when the first Agatean tourist arrives in Ankh-Morpork with a chest full of pure gold coins, and starts paying for meals with enough gold to buy the restaurant, forcing the Ankh-Morporkian authorities to react to the threat to the economy.
* Parodied in ''[[Myth Adventures]]'', Skeeve and Aahz are given a pitiful amount (on Klod) of gold coins to win a war with, but on Deva it turns out that ''one'' gold coin is a pretty decent asking price for an interdimensional mercenary's services.
 
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== [[Tabletop Game]] ==
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'':
** A simple dagger costs two gold pieces. According to the Player's Handbook v.3.5 gold pieces are a third of an ounce. The current price of gold is over $1600 per ounce, which means that a simple dagger is worth about a grand.
** It was worse in 1st Edition, wherein a gold piece weighed a tenth of a ''pound'' (about 1.5 Troy ounces). And a simple dagger ''still'' cost two gold pieces.
** In 1st Edition the widespread use of gold coins was explained in the Dungeon Master's Guide as being a result of "gold rush" economics. Adventurers were constantly going out and raiding lost tombs and monster hoards, bringing back the gold they found and spending it. This led to serious inflation and a significant decrease in the value of gold.
*** Which is handled fairly realistically in [http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/gamespyarchive/index.php?date=2005-09-07 this] ''[[Nodwick]]'' comic.
** ''[[Goblins (Webcomic)|Goblins]]'' [http://www.goblinscomic.com/09092006/ once] parodied the poorly thought out prices in the Player's Handbook.
** Previews for the fifth edition have claimed it will avert this, basing prices in silver instead of gold.
* Averted in ''[[GURPS (Tabletop Game)|GURPS]]'' Dungeon crawl adventures. A copper piece is worth about a dollar, while a gold coin is closer to $80.
 
== Videogame ==
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls (Video Game)|The Elder Scrolls]]'' series in general. In ''[[The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim (Video Game)|Skyrim]]'', one merchant mentions that with the dragon attacks supply routes are cut off and he can charge almost anything.
* Gold pieces are ''[[Runescape (Video Game)|Runescape]]'''s standard [[Global Currency]]. A typical tavern might charge one or two gold pieces for a mug of beer. A chocolate cake is about 400 gold pieces. A typical piece of armour could be anywhere from 40,000 to [[Adam Smith Hates Your Guts|20,000,000]]. A [[Commonplace Rare|pumpkin]] costs hundreds of millions.
* Almost averted in ''[[Dragon Age (Video Game)|Dragon Age]]'', where one gold coin equals 100 silver coins or 10,000 copper coins. IRL, the respective metals' prices ratio is about 427:8:1. However, a standard dagger costs 8 silvers in ''Origins'' and 5s 24c in ''II'', which is about five bucks by the same calculation as used in the D&D example above.
* ''[[Nethack]]'': A fortune cookie costs 7 gold ''[[Shout-Out|zorkmids]]", a food ration 45 zorkmids, and artifact weapons cost a few thousand zorkmids. Back-calculation from the weight system suggests that a zorkmid weighs about 40 grams, or about one and a quarter troy ounces. In the last 10 years, [[Real Life]] gold has varied between approximately $200 and $2000 per troy ounce, so that's $1,750-$17,500 for the fortune cookie, $11,250-$112,500 for the food ration, and a cool million or ten for Excalibur.
* The ''[[Ultima (Video Game)|Ultima]]'' series is an odd case with this. The existence of silver and copper coins in the game world is mentioned, but you only ever see gold yourself. A person working at the mint in ''Ultima VI'' shows you copper and silver coins, and then says something like "A grand adventurer such as yourself would surely only deal in gold." That still doesn't explain why one night at a regular inn can cost twenty gold.
* ''[[Castlevania]]'': The absolute cheapest, most worthless crap goes for 100 gold.
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons Online (Video Game)|Dungeons and Dragons Online]]'' is even worse than the tabletop game, instead of ten silver to one gold and ten coppers to one silver each denomination is worth a hundred of the previous coin.
* In ''[[Diablo]]'' ''II'' and ''[[Diablo III|III]]'', a gold piece is the tiniest unit of currency in the game. Level 1 monsters routinely carry up to 10 gold pieces (which they drop on the ground when you kill them). Vendors are willing to pay you 2 gold pieces for a ''damaged club'' (basically a broken stick). By level 10, you'll be carrying around (and paying) thousands of gold pieces.
 
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