# Metal and material prices?



## The Grumpy Celt (Sep 7, 2002)

I am working on writing a supplement. I requires some assistance. Namely, the price of metals in ingot form. The DMG has prices for finished products, not the material itself. So what does a DM do if he wishes to have some ingots of mithral tucked in a corner of a dwarven mine so.

So, any help as to the price of
-a pound of iron
-a pound of steel
-a pound of mithral
-a pound of adamantine
-a pound of pigeon poo


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## The Sigil (Sep 7, 2002)

Based SOLELY on the assumption that it is only the value of the material/metal that gives the various coins value (silver for silver, copper for copper, gold for gold etc.) and that the PHB tells us that one coin = 1/50 of one pound, the answer is quite simple.

A 50-gp ingot made of gold weighs one pound.

A 5-gp ingot made of gold weighs one-tenth of a pound.

And so on.

For US folks, someone mentioned that based on the density of gold, silver, and copper, a gold piece is about the size of a US dime, a silver piece is slightly larger than a quarter, and a copper piece is slightly larger than a silver piece.

If you want to tell me coins derive value thanks to rarity or government fiat, that's a different kettle of fish.   I know they do IRL, I am merely trying to make an assumption for fantasy worlds.

Now, to your REAL questions (just getting my assumptions out of the way):

1.) Given that iron is the main "ingredient" in steel, suppose it takes a Craft check to manufacture steel from iron.  Since the market price for steel is 2/3 gp per pound (see #2 below) and the Craft skill indicates that creating such takes 1/3 the market price in materials (I assume the carbon needed is basically free since I assume charcoal's cost is negligible).  Thus, iron is worth about 2/9 gp per pound (round to 2 sp/pound).
2.) A pound of steel - well, a dagger costs 2 gp, and it weighs one pound.  Since the description of the Craft skill indicates that it takes 1/3 the market price in materials, we can conclude that steel is worth 2/3 gp per pound (which you can round off to about 6-7 sp/pound).
3.) A pound of mithral is worth the same as a pound of platinum (500 gp) per the DMG.
4.) A pound of adamantine (alloy) is worth 1700 gp (by my own guesses - see original thread here: http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12885 ) but a pound of adamantium (pure metal) is worth 5000 gp.
5.) A pound of pigeon poo - I guess depends on whether or not you're selling it as a "material component" to a spellcaster. 

--The Sigil


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## LankyFK (Jan 5, 2018)

Trade Goods Cost 	Goods
1 cp 	1 lb. of wheat
2 cp 	1 lb. of flour or one chicken
5 cp 	1 lb. of salt
1 sp 	1 lb. of iron or 1 sq. yd. of canvas
5 sp 	1 lb. of copper or 1 sq. yd. of cotton cloth
1 gp 	1 lb. of ginger or one goat
2 gp 	1 lb. of cinnamon or pepper, or one sheep
3 gp 	1 lb. of cloves or one pig
5 gp 	1 lb. of silver or 1 sq. yd. of linen
10 gp 	1 sq. yd. of silk or one cow
15 gp 	1 lb. of saffron or one ox
50 gp 	1 lb. of gold
500 gp 	1 lb. of platinum


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