The value of coin in Azeroth?

[landashua]

One of the very few pet peeves I've had on this server is the conflicting schools of IC gold use. Some folk seem to represent it as its seen in game where each expansion/patch inflates prices for stock items/repairs, as a way of taking gold out of the economy, but rewards more gold for completing tasks like kills, dungeons or quests, as a way of showing a marked improvement in reward. This train of thought scoffs at spending a measly few gold on an inn room, and happily tips a gold coin after a good meal. The other school of thought, the one I most align myself with, is that currency is hard to come by. It can be disheartening when my Farstrider, who makes a relatively solid salary of 10 silver a week, gets charged a silver for a glass of juice in a tavern.

What I've seen a lot of lately is "name your price" type transactions, where a character hands a "bag of coins" or "sets a stack of coins down," but that's simply raising more questions. Is everyone fairly compensated? Did that mage just go into debt? And that type of transaction seems a bit meta to me (you just happened to have the sum pre-counted and bagged?) and tends to close further RP opportunities. What if you didn't have enough coin on hand to cover your drink/armor/horse/frilly shirt? What if you feel you're being overcharged?

I don't think either concept of currency is more right or wrong than the other, but I'd like to see where the denizens of CotH find themselves on the subject, perhaps even get an official/agreed stance on the subject. Rather than two competing trains of thought that, in my opinion, limit financial RP considerably, I'd like to see a definitive one way or the other.

[Loxmardin]

I would very much like to make an official statement on this, but there really is none to be made. Not yet, anyhow. Perhaps we could engage in the discussion and outline an approximate definition of what money's actually worth in WoW.

Personally, I tend to spend gold coins very sparingly. Usually, my characters don't even carry them on their person since I don't imagine most would carry their wealths in their pockets all the time, for one. Plus, investing gold shouldn't be a lighthearted thing to do in my eyes. Gold coins are generally spent on high quality merchandise or wares, or in massive amounts for anything larger such as buildings, cattle and riding animals.

I think ten silvers a week for a pretty decent job is actually a very good wage and sets a good example for the kind of wealth the regular character would have access to unless adventuring and looting pockets left and right. Regular drinks in a tavern, in my opinion, shouldn't charge more than a few coppers and potentially a silver coin for a glass or a pint. Spend a gold on a drink and I hope, sincerely, that it's a damn good drink. Or that the bartender takes a week's vacation for the generous tip.

This is just my opinion, granted. ... Hmm. This should probably be discussed further.

[landashua]

That's why I wanted to make the post. I've always considered a few silver to be a decent payoff, and a few gold to be a king's ransom. I know that even my most indulgent of characters won't pay a gold for -anything- without first trying to haggle it down.

Hopefully we can facilitate a discussion about it, here or elsewhere.

[Nymus]

Adding my 2 cents. Or should I say coppers. (u c waht i did thar?)

So, endgame quests (especially dailies) give a STUPID amount of -gold- coins, which confuses me, especially when you get it for doing a rather... less important task. I'll take the Slain Tua'lak (?) Villagers quest. You perform Last Rites for them, that's about it. There's risk, sure, the Vrykuls, but at the end, you get paid upwards of 10 gold.

I'll take a quest like... I dunno, in Northshire, killing that Orc that's leading the invasions. He's the leader of the invasions, the sole person commanding the legions killing the fine people of Northshire, and you rip off his head.

You get paid barely any silvers.

Even more confusing that for reporting to someone at higher levels, you get paid WAAAAAY more silvers. Just for reporting to someone! Either the quest givers and receivers are drug dealers / Bill Gates, or they're stupid.

Of course, this is game mechanics, which doesn't exactly have a hold on lore-wise content. Although, I do note that the prices of alcohol in most inns is high. Very high. So maybe gold isn't worth TOO much on it's own, but in the thousands (5000 or so) it's worth quite a tidy sum?

[McKnighter]

Since we have such a vague understanding of the value of coins, I tried to keep it to this sort of standard.

Daily purchases(Food, drinks, maybe something from a stall): Copper.
Moderate/out of the way purchases(Clothes, common weapons&equipment, potions, a room at an inn): Silver.
Top of the line purchases(enchanted equipment, mounts, bulk goods): Gold.

Something along those lines. :P

[Reigen]

I do wish people used copper more. I kind of do a bit of a real world comparison for myself, similar to what McKnighter said.

Copper I value to be 1-99 dollars.
Silver - 100-999
Gold - Anything over 1000.

A silver is something that could likely feed a farmer's family for a month. A gold could feed that same family for about a year. Spending Silver on something should be something that pinches the pocket of an everyday person, sort of like a trip to the mall. Sure, it's achievable, but for most people it's something you have to budget for. Gold is something you use to buy houses, take fancy vacations and throw high end parties/weddings that are meant to house many people. It's not something you really carry around with you nor would you throw down a gold for a bar tab because that might as well be enough to buy a drink for every person who walks into the bar for a week.

Though, I'd throw mounts in the Silver range. Basic mounts that is, not creatures meant or trained for battle. The type you'd get to travel to the city and work the farm. Something like a specially trained warhorse would run a gold or two I'd imagine.

[Noble]

Since we have such a vague understanding of the value of coins, I tried to keep it to this sort of standard.

Daily purchases(Food, drinks, maybe something from a stall): Copper.
Moderate/out of the way purchases(Clothes, common weapons&equipment, potions, a room at an inn): Silver.
Top of the line purchases(enchanted equipment, mounts, bulk goods): Gold.

Something along those lines. :P

Some fanciful restaurants in Azeroth charge a few silvers, some charge a crappton.

The way I see it is, in relevance to American and European Currencies.

Code:

Copper - Cent
Silver - Dollar (or Euro)
Gold - Roughly a hundred dollars, or 77 Euros.

[Reigen]

I don't think Azeroth has the mindset of anything that is less than a whole value, so I wouldn't compare copper to cents. That devalues the rest quiet a bit. Considering how expensive gold is, a coin backed by gold is worth far more than a hundred dollars. Perhaps if we were going off old time conversations [where a nickel could buy you a pig and a dollar a horse] it would make sense, but I'm more thinking modern time comparison. You're lucky to get a good pair of jeans for anything less than 50 dollars. Where as most of your basic needs [basic clothing, food, drinks] can be handled with copper[dollars].

[landashua]

I do dig Reigen and Knighter's chart, and Reigen makes a good point that Azeroth is unlikely to have any decimal or fractional currencies, since it's a purely coin-based economy (save for the ever present bartering.) We should also consider that the coins are minted of metals, so they may not even have the linear concept that we're familiar with.

[Roxas65]

I remember reading somewhere that the value of one gold coin was about enough to buy a sheep, so Reigen's estimates are probably not terribly far off.

EDIT: I'd also like to point something else out. Usually when you have a currency based on valuable minerals being used to make coins, you don't stamp them with an immediate value, the value is usually based on the coin's weight and purity.

Most coins will obviously be around the same value but some coins will be below or above the normal value of, let's say, a gold coin. This also means that a coin made in one place may not be as valuable as a coin made in another place. This usually refers to kingdoms, but it could sometimes be regional as well. Some coin mills just cheaped out on the purity.

To counter this, experienced coin merchants used small scales to weigh the coins and reference them to various coins of different value in their possession.

I understand that this would probably be extremely annoying from an RP perspective, but it's a fun little fact and might even be interesting to incorporate into an RP session if it doesn't annoy any of the players taking part.

[landashua]

That's what this discussion is about, Roxas. Expanding RP.

[Holynexus]

I remember reading somewhere that the value of one gold coin was about enough to buy a sheep, so Reigen's estimates are probably not terribly far off.

EDIT: I'd also like to point something else out. Usually when you have a currency based on valuable minerals being used to make coins, you don't stamp them with an immediate value, the value is usually based on the coin's weight and purity.

Most coins will obviously be around the same value but some coins will be below or above the normal value of, let's say, a gold coin. This also means that a coin made in one place may not be as valuable as a coin made in another place. This usually refers to kingdoms, but it could sometimes be regional as well. Some coin mills just cheaped out on the purity.

To counter this, experienced coin merchants used small scales to weigh the coins and reference them to various coins of different value in their possession.

I understand that this would probably be extremely annoying from an RP perspective, but it's a fun little fact and might even be interesting to incorporate into an RP session if it doesn't annoy any of the players taking part.

That's still expanding roleplay. I think it's an interesting idea - especially as the vast majority of trade around Azeroth is done in the same copper, silver and gold coins. Different realms may have different stuff on them, and the quality will be different, so I suppose busy trading posts and cities will tend to weigh the coins. And that's cool for expanding roleplay.

I also have Reigen's take on things, with copper used for daily things ($1-100), silver for more expensive things ($100-500/900) and gold for VERY expensive things. When I see people paying a hundred gold coins, it's like they bought bread for the value of a small house.

[Roxas65]

I remember reading somewhere that the value of one gold coin was about enough to buy a sheep, so Reigen's estimates are probably not terribly far off.

EDIT: I'd also like to point something else out. Usually when you have a currency based on valuable minerals being used to make coins, you don't stamp them with an immediate value, the value is usually based on the coin's weight and purity.

Most coins will obviously be around the same value but some coins will be below or above the normal value of, let's say, a gold coin. This also means that a coin made in one place may not be as valuable as a coin made in another place. This usually refers to kingdoms, but it could sometimes be regional as well. Some coin mills just cheaped out on the purity.

To counter this, experienced coin merchants used small scales to weigh the coins and reference them to various coins of different value in their possession.

I understand that this would probably be extremely annoying from an RP perspective, but it's a fun little fact and might even be interesting to incorporate into an RP session if it doesn't annoy any of the players taking part.

That's still expanding roleplay. I think it's an interesting idea - especially as the vast majority of trade around Azeroth is done in the same copper, silver and gold coins. Different realms may have different stuff on them, and the quality will be different, so I suppose busy trading posts and cities will tend to weigh the coins. And that's cool for expanding roleplay.

I also have Reigen's take on things, with copper used for daily things ($1-100), silver for more expensive things ($100-500/900) and gold for VERY expensive things. When I see people paying a hundred gold coins, it's like they bought bread for the value of a small house.

I actually imagine coins being made by the Horde will have a different value than those made in the alliance. Goblins probably make their own coins as well. So there's a lot of application for it.

[Jaella]

I doubt that Goblins would make their own currency to trade with, other than making game coins for slots and whatnot if those casinos are around.

[Wuvvums]

I don't think they were saying that goblins are making a new currency, so much as they are probably a large manufacturer of coin if they have the raw materials for it.