In the PC version the bars of gold are valued a 10539 caps. They weigh 35 "pounds", which is what most people I know
think of the weight units as. That makes a little over 301 caps per pound. There are about 14.5 troy ounces in an avoirdupois pound.
That averages to about $20.75/troy ounce, if one cap=one dollar. If you assume the Fallout world was frozen in the 1950's, culture-wise, the price of gold through the 50's and early 60's was usually about $35/troy ounce. So we're getting gypped by almost 15 caps per ounce! And if you figure it at
current rates of $1400/ounce (yes, I know, we're still 270 years away from the NV date) each bar should be worth $710500. Oh, well
at least it's still SHINY SHINY GOLD!

If I lived in the wasteland I would probably want to spend thousands of caps on gold.

nobody cares. by the time people play dead money you shouldnt have to buy anything else but ammo.

Well since the world went to hell aka Nuclear war, I am sure the price of gold collapsed. People used caps for money. NCR tried gold but the war with BoS made them switch to cash. Legion would want to pay alot for gold but since they are the only faction that uses gold, they get to set the price.

Also its a different timeline, hundreds of years in the future after a nuclear war. So I would say, no we aren't getting ripped off.

Why would any one want to buy gold?

Its useless in a Nuclear Wasteland.

Not useless just not everyone sees value in it. Money is anything a group of people deside has value or represents value. "Worth his weight in salt" came from the Romans that once paid people in salt. Water Merchants desided to use caps because they are all over and hard to fake. Caps = Water. NCR came along and brought back gold coins, backed by NCRs strong economy and the water mechants switched to the coin. War with the Brotherhood caused gold to lose value. Brotherhood kept attacking NCR gold shipments. So people went back to using the cap and NCR had to pay people in paper money. Paper money = Gold. Up until Richard Nixon paper money = Gold in America.

The Legion still use gold to make money.

Actually... I did the DLC at level 4 >.>'
And yes the gold is very shiny...

There are 14.583 Troy Oz. per pound (avoirdupois). With a gold bar valued at 10539 caps, the value is 20.65 caps per Troy Oz. That is so close to the price in dollars of gold before Executive Order 6102 back in 1933....when the dollar was truly backed by gold and gold and silver coins were minted and circulated....that it can't be a coincidence. A bottle cap has the value of a pre-1933 US Dollar, which was valued at $20.67 per Troy Oz. of gold.

What's interesting is that if you look at Legion currency the same way a Legion Denarius (valued at 4 caps) has a value of $82.68 Gold Dollars and the Aureus (100 caps) a value of $2,067....a level of economic strength unheard of even in the Pre-War world. Maybe the Legion lovers have a point after all.

But here is where it gets interesting. Sierra Madre chips are purchased/cashed in at the Cashier at the rate of 1 SM chip = 1 Pre-War money. With a high Barter, 1 Pre-War money = 10 caps in the Mojave. So a gold bar is worth US $1054, which means US $2.07 per troy oz. That's some serious deflation, there as Pre-War money is worth at least ten times as much as pre-1933 Gold backed US currency.

u peoples math is giving me a flipping brain tumor ;/

Gotta give Tiberius props though. He or she if the case may be, did some research into the subject.

They did this with the gold to try to teach us a lesson. It has nothing to do with real world weight and value.

if only the rock-it-launcher was in NV. shootin gold at enemies would be amazing

The bricks of gold, in reality of the wasteland, would really have limited value. To everyday wastelander, it's just a shiny, pretty, and bloody heavy stone. Basically, it's worthless beside being aesthetic. To educated and technologically wealthy folks like the Brotherhood of Steel, gold has value in use with electronics and laser weaponary. So to them, it would have some decent value.

However in relation to today, or in the Fallout world's past, it's value has drastically plummeted. Gold really isn't practical anymore unless you've got the technology to support it.

currency, gold, money, whatever, is all based on what the rich decide they want. In previous centuries, the King/Chief (who had everything) decided that the only way to show their status off, more than they could already, was to cover themselves in bling. Gold. Diamonds. Bring me diamonds and I'll give you a years worth of corn. Bring me gold and I'll give you that field over there. Bring me bronze and I won't behead you on the spot.

To the average commoner, you could barter : meat for grain, grain for thatching for your roof. But if you wanted MORE, you had to deal with the chief, so you had to have the thing the chief wanted more of: status symbols, bling, gold. Thus these thing had MORE value than anything else, because they got you more important things. And that's what the world's economy has been based on, is still based on to a certain extent.

After a nuclear war, what would the "chiefs" value more than anything else? What could you give them to guarantee safe passage for your caravan, for not attacking your village. Probably not gold. Water, possibly. Tech. Ammunition. What does a Pitt slave need to get out of slavery? Not gold, or caps. They need to prove they are a good fighter, because that is what is important to the chief of the Pitt. That's what he NEEDS. So being a good fighter is your currency in the Pitt. And that is a workable system (albiet brutal).

I never understood the "caps as currency" mechanism. If you came up to me with a handful of caps and said "I want 10 stimpacks" I would say.. caps? useless. Now that rifle over your shoulder, on the other hand. Barter is the natural mechanism in post-apocalyptia I would have thought.

thats what ive always wanted was a better barter system as it would add to the whole post apocaliptic feel imo

Barter should be the natural mechanism in post-apocalyptia.

But only when there is literally no civilization. The NCR and Legion have rebuilt. Currency has meaning in their lands.

is it false economy though? What is it based on? The locals would rather trade in caps than NCR currency? Why? Especially since caps are everywhere. You don't have to work or provide goods to gain caps, you just have to find some. Or make up a cap-press. The "wealth" has no basis in need. (yeah, I know, it's only a game)

Legion money is based on specie, as was the NCR's until thier gold reserves were destroyed by the Brotherhood to wreck thier economy. Now the NCR uses fiat money...like Federal Reserve Notes or the currency of the Confederacy...which is worth far less than more established currencies. No one tells us who is backing caps, but using the value of a gold bar a cap is worth far more than a US Dollar is today.

If you ask me, Gold should have been worth a lot less if sold to regular vendors. I can't imagine many people being crazy about gold in Post-apocalyptia.

However, it should have been worth WAY more when sold to technology merchants like the Van Graffs or B.O.S.
Gold makes for very good connections with wiring and the like. It would make sense for someone that designs guns with lots of wires and electrical components to really want some gold. Plus, those two merchants have plenty of caps to shell out to buy said gold.

Niamh & SaintlyTurkey, you guys obviously aren't familiar with the earlier Fallout games so let me regale you on the history and reasons for Nuka-Cola bottle caps being used as a common/standard wasteland currency.



Basically, there was just regular goods bartar until the town called Hub was established in former California but merchants. Bartaring goods for goods like livestock and other larger things became too time costly and cumbersome for trade affairs, which lead all the head merchants within the Hub to get together and collectively decided on a standard form of currency to make transactions much more efficient and smooth. They decided on caps for the following reasons:



Well, that's it for the history lesson today boys & girls. Hopefully that was somewhat insightful. Although, I'd like to add that using useless bottle caps as currency really isn't much different than using useless paper notes as currency like our money today, but the reasons justify the means. However mind you, bottle caps most likely aren't accepted continent-wide. Only in select places like on the west coast and somehow over on the east coast. Everywhere inbetween (for wherever is safe from the radioactive storms hammering the central land of the continent) is unknown what is used as currency if there even is one at all besides bartar.

still dont get it more info please :wink_smile:

Thanks for the info Demon, very very helpful. Makes sense now.

ehow did the east coast get into bottle-cap currency anyway? Did the Brotherhood introduce the idea? The Enclave? The Commonwealth?

I know some metals collect certain types of radiation and stay irradiated for a long time. Does gold do this?

Going back to 1-cap = 1 dollar, if you look at pre-war money, you only get 10 caps or less for a rather large stack of it.

The Sierra Madre Cashier exchanges chips for Pre-War money on a 1 for 1 basis....which implies that stack is the equivalent of US $1.00. From the prices you occasionally see in ads throughout the Fallout series the US Dollar was badly inflated in 2077.