Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kid Charlemagne" data-source="post: 844807" data-attributes="member: 93">I have an excellent link on this sort of thing, unfortunately it's on my PC at home, so I can't go into much detail now.  One neat thing to note - since your campaign is in an alternate North America - is that platinum is only found in the new world. It was unknown in Europe before Columbus.As for relative rarities, I'd generally go with the ratios in the PHB. Other interesting note:  the European economies were based on silver due to the rarity of gold.  Several massive Silver mines were discovered in Germany in the 900-1100 AD time period, and supplied much of Europe's silver for the next few centuries.  One mine, in fact, only just shut down in the last 20 years after 1,100 years of near-constant use!Eventually, however, the mines were depleted to a point where they couldn't get any more silver out until pumps were developed to drain the lower areas.  In real life, the depletion and the developement of the pumps were only seperated by 50 or so years.Silver had a tendency to accumulate in hoards - kings treasure rooms, etc.  New money only got made when new silver was found.  This can be a big source of fluctuation in currency price - along with the above mentioned mines becoming depleted.</blockquote>