Precious metal values in Middle Ages...

[Johnny1A.2]

In the real Middle Ages, what sort of monetary value did the precious metals have (as opposed to various RPG and fantasy conventions)?

That is, suppose I had an ounce (in today's American standard measure) of gold, silver, copper, etc in, say, 1250? What sort of buying power did that ounce of metal have? How did it vary across Europe?

[Anaraxes]

A couple of past threads with links to historical prices:

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=22939
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=32778

And a link to many, many links I haven't yet followed:
http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/RDavies...t/howmuch.html

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Johnny1a

In the real Middle Ages, what sort of monetary value did the precious metals have (as opposed to various RPG and fantasy conventions)?

That is, suppose I had an ounce (in today's American standard measure) of gold, silver, copper, etc in, say, 1250? What sort of buying power did that ounce of metal have? How did it vary across Europe?

I don't know about gold, but I've seen the figure that a pound of silver was around 240 days' wages for a farmhand or laborer, or 80 for a journeyman in a guild. Going with the GURPS $ figure of $300 as a month's cost of living for a Struggling character with Status -1, or $3600 a year, and figuring 300 working days in a year, I get $12 a day, or $2880 for a pound of silver. This is rather higher than the GURPS Basic Set value of $1000 for a pound, but historically precious metals were scarce in the Middle Ages; most exchange was barter rather than currency-based.

Bill Stoddard

[Christian]

here a price list in german. http://www.mittelalter-server.de/Mit...er_Preise.html

For those poor souls unable to read german, here a shortened list:

10 chicken, 1 gramm silver
1 kg grain, 3 gramm silver
1 knife, 3 gramm silver
1 pig, 30 gramm silver
1 cow/ox, 100-137 gramm silver
1 sword, 300-500 gramm silver
1 horse, 800 gramm silver
1 battle horse, 5000-8000 gramm silver
1 gramm gold, 20 gramm silver

453 gramm are one american lbs

In th early middle age a "pfennig/penny/denarii" was ~ 2 gramm silver, this later came down to 1 gramm silver per pfennig.

So a horse was almost 2 lbs of silver (or in later time 3-4 lbs of coins, due to less silver in the coins), or 1 1/3 ounces of gold.

[Christian]

Oh, and 1 "denarii", one silverpenny was in the early middle ages what a farmhand earned a day. And the Karlspfund (charles pound, ~430 gramm/0.95 lbs) was the equialent to 240 pennies. Later this changed, when the coins became less pure. But for smplicities sake you can assume:

2 gramm silver = 1 days wage for simple labour

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Christian

...But for smplicities sake you can assume:

2 gramm silver = 1 days wage for simple labour

Frightening to think that one could snort a week's wage... literally.

[Christian]

The used coins where extremely thin, and in the early age where even "hacked" into halfpence or quarterpence.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Johnny1a

In the real Middle Ages, what sort of monetary value did the precious metals have (as opposed to various RPG and fantasy conventions)?

That is, suppose I had an ounce (in today's American standard measure) of gold, silver, copper, etc in, say, 1250? What sort of buying power did that ounce of metal have?

Well, a modern US ounce (ounce Avoirdupoids) is 28.375 grammes, which would have minted as almost 21 English pennies in 1250. (Coins in other countries were already debased by 1250.) That would hire a labourer for about 16 days, or buy 420 eggs, or seven gallons of Gascon wine in London, or 42 gallons of beer in Somerset, four or five cheap swords, . . . . According to whether the harvest were good or bad, the price of wheat in the middle of the 13th century might be 28 to 60 pence per quarter (eight bushels), and your 21 pence might buy six bushels of wheat or it might only buy three.

How did it vary across Europe?

I don't know. Though presumably the value of silver must have been lowest in southern Germany, where the richest mines were.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Christian

The used coins where extremely thin, and in the early age where even "hacked" into halfpence or quarterpence.

Quarterpence are called "farthings" in English.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by whswhs

historically precious metals were scarce in the Middle Ages;

Precious metals got steadily more plentiful, as rich silver-mines in Germany put metal into circulation faster than the economy grew. In terms of silver, prices and wages in general rose by about a factor of four from about 1100 to about 1400.