A Viable Foundation for a Hoard?
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 49994
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"What do you think of these?" the Captain asked Astra. "Here we have a
Blacksand five laurel piece, a cask of fine white wine from Colonia Vinya,
and finally this fine garnet set on a silver ring." The Captain was enough
of a practical psychologist to realise that it might be the purported
rather than the true value of an item that would influence Astra's
reaction to it, so he had decided that he would not tell her that the
silver was fake. The officers who accompanied him either were well enough
trained to know that they should not point out their Captain's seeming
mistake in front of Astra, or else they did not know that the supposed
silver was not genuine.
"The coin is made of copper, is it not?" Astra said. "Having only recently become a dragon, I am not entirely sure if it is only the intrinsic value of the metal that counts, or whether how much it will buy is important." "The twenty laurel coin is fixed to be worth the same as a gold piece," the Captain said. "So this coin is worth one quarter of a gold piece." "The difficulty is that its worth in terms of gold may change over time, for all that it is supposed to be fixed. I know enough of my own country's economic history to realise that. You don't have that problem with gold or silver coins, since they have their own intrinsic value." Since none of the officers felt that they could usefully comment, there was a moment of silence before Astra continued: "I have never heard any legends that told of dragons having wine as part of their hoard, but I suppose that there is no reason why they should not. How much is this wine worth now, and how well will it keep its value? If it would be undrinkable in a couple of years, and hence would quickly become of no value, then I am not sure whether it could be a viable part of my hoard." "This is a very fine vintage," the Captain said. "The wine is three years old, and is just coming to its peak condition. If other vintages of this wine are any guide, then it should not start to deteriorate for at least twenty years. We had hoped to be paid one hundred laurels for it." "The ring, now. That is the one item whose value should be more or less fixed. Unless, I suppose, great new deposits of silver ore are discovered or someone opens a new garnet mine. But of course that can apply with any precious stones or metals. How much is it worth?" "I'm not sure," the Captain confessed. "My mother left it to me in her will, in the hope that I might give it to my bride when I married. But I am still a single man, and I doubt that I shall ever marry now. It's hard to woo a woman, when you spend three-quarters of your time away at sea. I've never had the ring valued. But I would have though that it ought to be worth quite a lot."
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JH
4/10/2005 12:57:07 PM
Extending Enabled
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