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Old 08-11-2022, 03:18 PM   #11
FireHorse
 
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Default Re: The golden problem of Cidri

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Originally Posted by TippetsTX View Post
I prefer a 100:1 silver-to-gold ratio.

I have read that from the time of ancient Rome, all the way up until late Medieval times, the silver-to-gold ratio was relatively stable, usually from ~10:1 to ~12:1 or so (give or take a few silvers in either direction).

More extreme ratios came much later in history. And according to both Google and Bing, the current (August 2022) ratio is 87:1.

Not that any of those figures really matter. Your worlds may vary.

For whatever it's worth, I use 12:1 — partly because it works well with Troy ounces, and also with the pound-shilling-pence currency system that I like to use, but mostly just because 12 is my favorite number.
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Old 08-11-2022, 09:50 PM   #12
Bill_in_IN
 
Join Date: Dec 2021
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Default Re: The golden problem of Cidri

I always preferred the ratios in ITL because it causes less confusion to me. It's somewhat metric.

10 coppers = 1 Silver Piece
10 Silver Pieces = 1 Gold Piece

The Gold Bar seems to vary based upon overall size of the bar. Unless otherwise stated, I default to the Death Definition of 1 Gold Bar = 100 Gold Pieces = 1,000 Silver Pieces.
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Old 08-12-2022, 03:42 AM   #13
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Default Re: The golden problem of Cidri

A one pound gold bar is massive and weighs as much as five daggers.
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Old 08-12-2022, 07:02 AM   #14
Bill_in_IN
 
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Default Re: The golden problem of Cidri

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A one pound gold bar is massive and weighs as much as five daggers.
By massive, are you referring to size/volume?

I agree that gold is heavy but it is also very dense. Therefore the volume (size) of the bar doesn't have to be large to accommodate its weight.

In TFT, if I were presented with a gold bar that has only been described by its weight, per the prior stated references and my preferences, I would be compelled find the value of gold by weight in 1980 and extrapolate or interpolate as needed. That would be the starting point and then I would probably round to the nearest $10 or $100 to keep the value itself simple. That may keep it scaled properly with respect to the values stated in the various tables in ITL.

Of course I'm all ears on this one. I leave it up to the GM to tell me what a Gold Bar is worth. But as GM, I would default as stated. If the weight of the bar causes encumbrances that is out of balance with its size or value, you will probably hear complaints from players.

Last edited by Bill_in_IN; 08-12-2022 at 07:05 AM.
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Old 08-12-2022, 09:20 AM   #15
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Default Re: The golden problem of Cidri

Another issue is that SJ was writing during a time of rapid inflation. Gold went from $580/pound in 1970 to ten times that much in 1981. (Cidri has a pound of gold at $1000 in silver coins of course.) Even a halfling ought to be able to waddle out of DT2 with two dozen one-pound bars. (The DT2 simple encumbrance rules seem to be around 5 pound bars to be comparable to weapons.)
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Old 08-12-2022, 09:58 AM   #16
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Default Re: The golden problem of Cidri

24k gold has a density of 0.697979 lb (avdp) per cubic inch. So 1 pound of gold has a volume of only 1.432707 cubic inches.

That's a "bar" with dimensions of 0.5" thick, 1.25" wide, and ~2.3" long.
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Old 08-12-2022, 11:40 AM   #17
Bill_in_IN
 
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Default Re: The golden problem of Cidri

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Originally Posted by FireHorse View Post
24k gold has a density of 0.697979 lb (avdp) per cubic inch. So 1 pound of gold has a volume of only 1.432707 cubic inches.

That's a "bar" with dimensions of 0.5" thick, 1.25" wide, and ~2.3" long.
Thanks for adding actual dimensions to my previous assertion.
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Old 08-12-2022, 11:59 AM   #18
Bill_in_IN
 
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Default Re: The golden problem of Cidri

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Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
Another issue is that SJ was writing during a time of rapid inflation. Gold went from $580/pound in 1970 to ten times that much in 1981. (Cidri has a pound of gold at $1000 in silver coins of course.) Even a halfling ought to be able to waddle out of DT2 with two dozen one-pound bars. (The DT2 simple encumbrance rules seem to be around 5 pound bars to be comparable to weapons.)
I concur. The value of gold and the double digit inflation of the late 70's really shifted people's perspective on the associated buying power.

I can remember buying a large Hershey's chocolate bar for 25 cents. by the early 80's it was closer to $1. In the early 70's, my mother would buy 5 full 80 lb. paper sacks to feed a family of 5 for $25. By 1980, those same groceries cost ~$125.
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Old 08-18-2022, 11:11 AM   #19
David Bofinger
 
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Default Re: The golden problem of Cidri

The low price of gold and silver on Cidri is because the Mnoren like gold and silver and made sure there was lots of it about. I wonder, though, whether the supply of gold on Cidri, ample as it may seem, is finite.

On Earth we expect to exhaust mines, find new mines by exploration or by improving our mining technology, run as fast as we can to stay in one place and hope we don't stumble.

On Cidri none of that is happening: societies have been around a while, technology isn't really improving. So we should be running out of valuable and easily accessed ores. Unless there are Mnoren machines still making more?
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Old 08-18-2022, 01:01 PM   #20
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Default Re: The golden problem of Cidri

Easy to forget today, but when TFT was originally written, there was no Internet. Any research on ancient monetary systems and values involved either being lucky enough to know someone that knew or journeying to the local library and spending hours or days researching the subject.

Or you could just make something up that was fairly simple and get on with writing the rest of the game.

On the inflation thing, I remember as a kid adjusting my candy purchases to keep under the amount where sales tax kicked in. About 8 cents IIRC.
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