So I was going to make a pricing mod in Oblivion again when I ran into a problem. Gold is worth more than silver, or the Septim is not gold.

I thought I would be smart and make a mod that would use the value of the Septim to relate to all the prices of objects in the game because we don't use dollars, euros, pounds, or any other common currency in the game. I needed to find out how heavy a gold Septim was first. So I needed to measure the coin and get its volume. I took out my collector's edition coin from the Oblivion CE and measured it.

radius (cm): 1.850
height (cm): 0.300
Volume of a cylinder = [pi(radius²)]height
Volume (cm³): 3.226

The coin isn't made out of gold, so I can't just weigh it. I could use the periodic table to figure out the density of gold, but I can just look it up.

Density of gold (g/cm³): 19.32
Mass = Volume(Density)
Mass of coin if gold (g) = 62.319

The weight system in Oblivion has no units. I had to take a guess at which system they are on. First I guessed since they are based in the US, they are on the English system. Then I took samples of things like the weight of a fine steel dagger in Oblivion and compared it to a real one.(Not an exact science) I found a variety of different weights for comparisons, and got more of a scatter plot of data that pointed more to the English system. Again, it was tough and ultimately a educated guess.

So then I can assume that,
Mass (oz): 2.19

Well this means that every Septim in the game is 2.19 oz of gold. A silver nugget in Oblivion has a weight of 0.25 which I will assume is a quarter of a pound or 4oz. It also has a value of 15. I spot a problem.


The Point

I hope Skyrim will have some sort of unit system, even if it is native to TES. If the devs set up some sort of system, they could figure out the proper weight and value of items. Not to mention that we should never have 0 value clutter. Pricing and weight seemed all wrong in Oblivion, and probably previous games too. I find it frustrating. Also having gold as the base currency, and not having any other coins or money types, is not a good idea. 2 oz.s of gold is worth a lot. It is my opinion that a system of weights and measurements plus a new currency system could add cultural and economic depth to the game which would enhance our experience.

wow, you really know how to get in-depth

but yeah, the pricing needs to be adressed, because in oblivion, so many items felt useless because they had almost no value.
infact, id be up for removing 70% of the amount of items in the game, so when you find a 'paintbrush jar' it actually means something, and doesnt go into that already-thousand strong pile you have.

What gaurntee do we have that Septims are made of pure gold? That said, there should be more consistency in the weight of items.
Gold is problematic for the base unit of currency, but then we'd need to have copper and silver coins, or similar with a conversion rate between them. Could be cool, but I don't know if it's worth the developer's time at this point. A price of 0 Gold always said to me "This item is worth less than 1 gold, but we aren't modelling fractions of a Septim, so we're just going to make it free." Or alternativly, "This item is of no use to an adventurer. Don't bother stealing it to sell for a profit." Also, prices are based on what people are wiling to spend, not wieght.

How much silver would need to go into a Silver Longsword, vs how much it costs? Weight 28, Value 125.

28 (sword) / 0.25 (nugget) = 112 nuggets assuming pure silver. 112 (nuggets) * 15 (septims) = 1680 septims.

Granted, we don't know how much of the Longsword is silver, but ...

Edited for clarity.