A gold brick costs about 3000 coins and melts from exactly 3000 coins. The mass of a brick according to the wiki is 37.1kg. 1/3000th of this would be a coin with a mass of 12.37g. At current gold prices, $38,220.81 per kg in USD (2nd January 2015), and using the brick mass mentioned earlier, 37.1kg of gold is worth $1,417,992.05 Thus, a gold coin is worth about $472.66.
There are a few things we can take from this.
When your hero wins something seemingly miniscule like 2 gold coins, remember it’s still like finding a grand in someone’s wallet-it’s not so minor.
The temple has a mass of about 37,100kg assuming average gold brick size. That’s not very big in volume due to gold’s density-sorry to temple owners who have been claiming they have more than one room. It’s also likely that a person can’t fit or can barely fit in the room-so maybe it’s actually just a golden altar. A completed temple is also then worth $1,417,992,051. A hero actually becomes a billionaire with the 706th brick.
If your hero/ine blew 1800 coins at the bar, he/she just spent the equivalent of $850,795.23 on beer. At an estimate of maximum 20 beers in a night (heroes get thirsty), it still means he’s paying $425.40 per beer. So we should definitely envy him-but I doubt it’s possible to find beer that expensive. I’m guessing the hero has other entertainment in that 1800 coins.
Remember-no matter how tough you are, you can’t drink more than 25 beers in a day, even if gold is currently overvalued.
SAVINGS UPDATE-to put savings numbers in perspective, the 30 million coins required for retirement sum up to 1,113,000kg of gold, approximately a quarter of the gold held in Fort Knox. To fully fund a hero’s retirement, the current value of the relevant amount of gold coins would then be $42,539,761,530. This would make the first hero to retire the third richest human being on Earth.
2014 UPDATE-gold prices are falling! Down $5k per kg in the last three months! Maybe this explains why all the sudden gopher wood is showing up everywhere?
2014 UPDATE 2-now they’re back up. Maybe the wood is less attractive than initially thought? Maybe it’s all a big scam? Tune in next time!
2014 UPDATE 3-And down. Will this roller coaster never stop? The gold isn’t actually changing…
2015 UPDATE-still falling, as well as the value of my essay!