Gem valuation -- CZ:UY question (SPOILERS)

Pat Payne · Post by **Pat Payne** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:51 am

Hey everybody:

I've been running my group through Castle Zagyg, and we've been having a blast -- after a few months, they've finally started rampaging through The Storerooms (mostly because they found themselves besieged for a time in the postern gate by bandits and a rather irate bunch allied with the Slavelords... )

However, there's a snag in judging the scenario that I can't really wrap my head around, and wanted to see if I could get any good opinions on it. Maybe Ghul could shed some light on it?

It looks like they're going to get out with most of the statue of Kurtulmak from the Kobold shrine -- my party's dwarven barbarian and mage were both taking chunks of it and ended up demolishing it, even though they incurred the strength penalty. Realistically, how much malachite do you think would be in a 5-foot statue like that, and how much would it be worth, if they could find a buyer?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 9:06 am

15,155 pounds

Probably 1 gold per pound
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Lord Dynel · Post by **Lord Dynel** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 5:14 pm

Treebore wrote:
15,155 pounds

Probably 1 gold per pound

Interesting calculation, Tree. Where did you come up with that, out of curiousity?
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:13 pm

Lord Dynel wrote:
Interesting calculation, Tree. Where did you come up with that, out of curiousity?

The density of Malachite is 4,000 grams per liter.
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:23 pm

Or, 4 grams / cubic centimeter.
This website is invaluable for this kind of thing, if you don't have a big thick book on gemstones.
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:28 pm

Guess I should explain my other assumptions.

I assumed the statue is a bas relief carving, so primarily is a cylinder in over all shape, so I gave it a 3 foot diameter, and then calculated its cubic dimensions. based on 5 foot of height and 3 foot of diameter. Then I used the rounded off density of Malachite to calculate its over all weight.

I did this quick, and didn't double check my math, so feel free to do so, being nearly 8 tons does seem a bit high to me. I was guessing 3 tons, but I am typically wrong at estimating the weight of such large pieces.

As for price good Malachite (meaning good to top grades of it) can wholesale for up to $20/pound. Truly exceptional stuff can go for even more. A lot more, I have stuff that I could get $100/pound for, as an example.

So I assumed average grade Malachite, and assumed 1 gold equates to $10 in terms of guessing real world values with C&C/D&D values.

If you want a consistent way to convert such values look up how Gary did it in his World Builder books, I was just doing all of this off of the top of my head at 2 AM in the morning. So I didn't pull out his books to refresh my memory on the conversion values Gary created.

So if you have his books base it on $10/pound. I may go look it up myself in a little while.
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:32 pm

serleran wrote:
Or, 4 grams / cubic centimeter.
This website is invaluable for this kind of thing, if you don't have a big thick book on gemstones.

Yep, and if I remembered my conversions correctly there are 1000 cc's per liter, so 4000 g/liter for Malachite.

If not I got really wrong numbers.

Could someone double check how many cubic inches are in a 5 foot by 3 foot cylinder? See if they come up with the same values I did?
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:34 pm

Knowing the width and depth would be handy. We have one dimension, height, which is 5 feet (or 152.4 cm.) If we had the width and depth, we would multiply them to this to get the cubic size (gross assumption that it is rectangular,) and then multiply by 4 to get the amount of malachite in grams. From there, one could determine the amount of pounds. This value would be too high, however, as it probably is not square, but humanoid shaped, and thus, loses a lot of mass toward the head.
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:49 pm

OK, so let's make some assumptions...

Statue height = 5' (152.4 cm)

Statue width (shoulder to shoulder) = 2.5' (76.2 cm)

Statue depth (front to back) = 1.2' (36.6 cm)

Total cubic centimeters = 425031.408

Grams in CC = 1700125.632

Grams in pounds = 3748.13543 pounds

[This post has been edited -- it is now correct.]
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:56 pm

NVM, I wasn't moving my decimals correctly.

Edit: So you did have a 106,000 value in there? OK, guess I was right, but you fixed it!
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 7:03 pm

serleran wrote:
OK, so let's make some assumptions...

Statue height = 5' (152.4 cm)

Statue width (shoulder to shoulder) = 2.5' (76.2 cm)

Statue depth (front to back) = 1.2' (36.6 cm)

Total cubic centimeters = 425031.408

Grams in CC = 1700125.632

Grams in pounds = 3748.13543 pounds

[This post has been edited -- it is now correct.]

Judging by this my numbers for assuming 3 feet depth and width are way too high. So definitely ignore the 15,000 pound answer. It should be 8,000 pounds or less. Apparently I doubled something I shouldn't have.
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Pat Payne · Post by **Pat Payne** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 7:24 pm

Wow -- thanks, Treebore and Serleran!

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 7:45 pm

Thank Serl, he did the correct math!
A potential interesting aside, Malachite is a copper based rock, so you could probably smelt about 3 pounds of pure copper out of that statue.

Plus, if that Malachite was mined from nearby rock, like is often done in Gary adventures, it is essentially a copper mine, even though you would likely make more money off of selling chunks of Malachite. It is a gorgeous blend of green and black colors, after all.
http://www.galleries.com/minerals/carbo ... lachit.htm
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 7:49 pm

Actually, I was wrong again, it is 57% copper, by weight. So you would smelt over a 2,136 pounds of pure copper from that statue.
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Lord Dynel · Post by **Lord Dynel** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 10:20 pm

God work fellas...and thanks for the explanation, Tree. I was working on it doing a different route. I was thinking that there was roughly 20 gallons of displacement (volume) from that size a statue, equating to roughly 2.5 cubic feet. I was going to keep going from there, but yours and serl's method seemed to make a lot more sense than mine.
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:03 am

Too bad its not made from iridium, which is considered the most dense mineral at 22.65 / cubic centimeter. That would make the statue weigh 21223.8169 pounds...
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