Exchange rate question?

[mmadsen]

But who, in modern times, is the "common man?" Your average westerner makes a lot more than your average guy from Bangladesh.

If your goal is to get "a feel for how much a gold piece is worth", it doesn't really matter who the common man is. If you're in Bangladesh, you look around at the common folk around you, and you say, one silver penny is about one day of their wages. That's your frame of reference -- and all you're trying to do is get a feel for how much a silver or gold coin is worth to the people of your D&D world.

If your goal is to see how many DVDs a gold piece could buy, you're out of luck. If your goal is to see how wide a blacksmith's eyes might get (or not) when he sees a pile of a few dozen gold pieces, it's a good rule of thumb.

 

[Morik]

Thank you for all your help

Hmm...

very interesting answers and I fell really guilty that I asked in such a inncoent almost green way, that the span of answers would take from modern to middle-age time to fantasy and back to reality.

I guess I should have included the real reason behind my question...

I just close to finish to create a middle-sized city in the realms (located roughly between Luskan and Neverwinter) at the shore of the Sword Coast.

I tried out an experiment. I took a real city (which have a very decent middle-age look and feeling) out of Earth and collected all photos and description from that city I could get my hands on.

The city I'm reffering to is Tallinn (the Estonian capital). A city with a huge potential to transmute into FR (or DND at whole).

However, in this city there is a luxurious Art Nouveau villa called
'Villa Ammende' and it is actually a Hotel.

I have the real prices of this hotel for the meals, the rooms and for the weeding arangements, which the hotel offer to their guests.

Yes, you heard right... In this hotel you can marry your love in a very romatic, yet not so cheap manner.

I have even got my hands on the complete floor plans of that wonderful house (think of the possibilities of a DND encounter, wounderfil with the photos of the rooms to let the pictures describe where word could fail)

Now I have Estonian Prices which I have to exchange somehow to the FR Goldpiece Value (almost impossible I would say).

100 EEK (Estonian Kroon) equals 6.4 Euro (the same in $) and now I have the prices exchanged in Euro but how much is that in Goldpieces??

While I just could estimate the value in Gold I would like to hear some of your guys insights how I could handle this better...

Here are an example of the Villa Ammende's prices of a stay
in the rooms:

One Night in the main hotel building with a luxurious breakfirst and a 'sun set dinner' in the Tower Ammende (a real Tower) costs (over-night stay in the cheapest room)

Double-de-Lux Room
2 800 EEK or 178 $ for one person

The Ammende Suit (best room)
5 500 EEK or 350 $ or one person

The other rooms costs as follows

Mahagon Suite
4 500 EEK or 286 $ or one person

Suite
3 200 EEK or 203 $ or one person

A two day exclusive package with all kind of pleasent entertainment and romantic dinners, views and so on

10 000 EEK or 636$ for one person.

AHHH.... I guess I'm enloved with the city of Tallinn and the beautifull villa now. Really Tallinn is wonderful (from the pictures I have seen).

I'm really planning now to drag my wife with me on the July 24 next year. It will be our 10th anniversary marriage-day.

I hope two days at Villa Ammonde (the exlusiv package perhaps, ahem, no, better not - whoa 600 bugs to each - too much) could do wonder to give the love a new surge of power.

If you want to have a look of the beautiful villa (which I plan to visit on my next vacation - it is not SO expansive at least - the today 'common man' can afford it - every two years - )
here is the Internet adress (English Language available

http://www.ammende.ee

(ee = for Estonia)

Hope to hear from you soon
Eric

 

[S'mon]

But who, in modern times, is the "common man?" Your average westerner makes a lot more than your average guy from Bangladesh. Even in our own country, who's "common?" The guy working at McDonald's for minimum wage or the guy putting in 9 to 5 at the office?

1sp/day, 7sp/week in D&D 3e is the subsistence wage - the closest analogy in the modern western world is not 'minimum wage', but Welfare/Unemployment benefit, which probably puts 1sp at somewhere between $5 and $10. Given that most western societies are fairly wealthy, to me 1sp=$5, 1gp=$50 looks about right. Euros and $ are about the same for this purpose.

 

[Ferret]

0.16 XAU Gold Ounces = 32.6418 GBP United Kingdom Pounds

1 gold ounce = 204.011 GBP 1 GBP = 0.00490168 Gold ounce

Why

 

[Alchemist]

And while we're mudding up this guy's thread, lets not forget that pure gold coins are useless and impractical. Gold is soft and malleable, making coins of pure gold a stupid idea. A few weeks in some sack, rubbing against the sides and other coins would start to show wear. A year would show significant wear and the coin could be just a sliver in a few years.

So doing a simple mass conversion isn't the answer either since your gold coin is going to be an alloy of some nature, much like our own coins.

Not that this answers his question. My answer to the question: Set the price to be whatever is expensive (for this sort of thing) in your world. If it's a high end place, it should be priced at the high end. That's my 2 cp.

 

[Xeriar]

Well, alloys don't dent that too much, though I think 10-carat is something like 60% gold, typically if you are talking about a worthy alloy the main metal is in the 98% range.

Anyway, gold has been hovering around $250 per ounce troy or so, with 12 ounces (not 16) to a pound, or about $3,000 per pound. By that measure, a GP is about $60.

 

[Alchemist]

Well, alloys don't dent that too much, though I think 10-carat is something like 60% gold, typically if you are talking about a worthy alloy the main metal is in the 98% range.

Anyway, gold has been hovering around $250 per ounce troy or so, with 12 ounces (not 16) to a pound, or about $3,000 per pound. By that measure, a GP is about $60.

That's my point, sortof. 10 carat gold is a very sturdy gold alloy. And 10 carats is 42% gold, btw. 18 carat could be a reasonable choice for coinage, it's reasonably sturdy and 75% gold.

In any case, the economics pointed out by other posters make this a meaningless method of converting value. But it is an interesting point.

 

[Xeriar]

That's my point, sortof. 10 carat gold is a very sturdy gold alloy. And 10 carats is 42% gold, btw. 18 carat could be a reasonable choice for coinage, it's reasonably sturdy and 75% gold.

In any case, the economics pointed out by other posters make this a meaningless method of converting value. But it is an interesting point.

Thanks for the correction.

Actually, it does have some use, as it allows me to reverse engineer a few medieval 'prices' of certain things that were otherwise more intangible - such as 40 gp for a long sword.

 

[mmadsen]

Re: Thank you for all your help

Now I have Estonian Prices which I have to exchange somehow to the FR Goldpiece Value (almost impossible I would say).

100 EEK (Estonian Kroon) equals 6.4 Euro (the same in $) and now I have the prices exchanged in Euro but how much is that in Goldpieces??

In case this hasn't been made clear, there's no reason to think there's a single conversion ratio between the value of a Euro in modern Europe and the value of a gold piece in the Forgotten Realms. The supply and demand in those two worlds are completely different.

What's the price of an Apple laptop in the Forgotten Realms? Of a vorpal blade in Estonia? Even things that exist in both worlds shouldn't necessarily have similar prices. Any noble should have a household full of servants, while many modern millionaires have none.

 

[Cedric]

While it may sound weird, I think of it this way. In the middle ages an ounce of gold would buy a man a well-made suit. In the 1800's an ounce of gold would buy a man a well-made suit. Today an ounce of gold would buy a man...a well-made suit.

Cedric