I didn't really know where to put this, but since all the elements mentioned here are used in alchemy I decided this would be the place. First of all my ulimate goal is to create a world as vivid and real as our own. Thus this discussion is only vaguely relivant to practical rpg. Those of you less than interested in world building may wish to skip this particular article.
This is a discussion of the 8 base metals used in palladia. Mercucy, though it is a metal is not included, because its use is so distinct from these others. Of them all but nickel was used in its near pure state in the ancient world. Nickel was not seen as a seperate element, but was often used in compinations with others. I am going on the assuption that in palladia methods were discovered to extract Nickel from rocks and mold it as any other metal. I hope this is not too much of a leap of faith.
Thus the 8 metals are: Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron, Zinc, Tin, Lead, and Nickel. These have all been used in Palladia's history to craft weapons, objects, and ordiments. To what extent each metal is used of course depends on the knowlage of the culture and its avalibity in the region.
Gold is recognised thoughout the world as a precious metal. Its value is equal to roughly 1000 gold pieces. A gold piece as defined here is a coin of some base metal that often contains a small speck or "piece" of gold. The value of this coin is 1/20th of a true gold coin with a radius of 3/8" and a thickness of 1/16" valued soley for its weight in gold (~.3oz). This discovery that gold pieces couldn't be made entirely of gold was one of my first. Theres simply no way you could make 1000 (or as the book say 2000) solid gold coins out of a pound of gold. It turns out that a pound of gold is a mere 1.435" cube. Thats because gold is such a dense element. By comparision a pound of water would fit need a cube 27.687". Anyway, gold does have properties of an alchemy ingredient, but I'll post those directly.
Silver is the second precious metal. Its value is 350 gold pieces per pound. Of course this varies widely depending on its availablity in the region.
More coming soon on the locations, values, and alloys of the metals.