Many times the copper tarsk bit is split into 4th , 8th, or 10th . Please bear with me by using a base of 10 here, it makes calculations easier without a calculator. Since John Norman gave us a choice of 4, 8 or 10, it’s still within the scrolls for me to choose 10.

What Things Should Cost on Gor

Merchandise on Gor is much difference in price than merchandise on Earth. Remember, this is Gor, not Earth, and things are cheaper on Gor.

My thanks to Lady Asaria for the following quotes:

A golden tarn disk was a small fortune. It would buy one of the great birds themselves, or as many as five slave girls.
(Tarnsman of Gor - pg 91)

Five pieces of gold, in its way, incidentally, is also a fortune on Gor. One could live, for example, in many cities, though not in contemporary Ar, with it's press on housing and shortages of food, for years on such resources.
(Magicians of Gor - pg 468)

My thanks to ArKhan, Ubar of Ra for finding Me this quote...

The merchant turned to me. He handed me a silver tarsk from the purse.
"You need give me nothing," I said. "It was not important."
"Take, if you will," said he, "as a token of my gratitude, this silver tarsk."
I took it. "Thank you," I said. Several of the men about, striking their shoulders in the Gorean fashion, applauded the merchant. He had been very generous. A silver tarsk is, to most Goreans, a coin of considerable value. In most exchanges it is valued at a hundred copper tarsks, each of which valued, commonly, at some ten to twenty tarsk bits. Ten silver tarsks, usually, is regarded as the equivalent of one gold piece, of one of the high cities. To be sure, there is little standardization in these matters, for much depends on the actual weights of the coins and the quantities of precious metals, certified by the municipal stamps, contained in the coins. Sometimes, too, coins are split and shaved. Further, the debasing of coinage is not unknown. Scales, and rumors, it seems, are often used by coin merchants. One of the central coins on Gor is the golden tarn disk of Ar, against which many cities standardize their own gold piece. Other generally respected coins on Gor tend to be the silver tarsk of Tharna, the golden tarn disk of Ko-ro-ba, the golden tarn of Port Kar, the latter particularly on the western Vosk, in the Tamber Gulf region, and a few hundred pasangs to the north and south of teh Vosk's delta.
(Rogue of Gor P 155)

And Thanks To Me cause I found this one Myself

“Boy!” cried the Forkbeard. The boy looked at him. The Forkbeard threw him a golden tarn disk. “Buy a bosk and sacrifice it,” said the Forkbeard. “Let there be much feasting on the farms of the Inlet of Green Cliffs!”
(Marauders of Gor P 150)

Now all that said, I always wondered, “What IS a gold tarn worth?” If I were to equate it to My pocket change, would it be a dollar? More? Then I was given this quote from Lady Asaira....

Behind the desk, on the wall, there was posted a list of prices. They were quite high. I did not think that those were normal prices. If they were, I did not see how the inn could manage to be competitive. I struck the keeper's desk twice more. There was a tharlarion-oil lamp hanging on three chains from the ceiling, to my right, above the desk. Sample items from the list were as follows:

Bread and Paga..................2 C.T.
Other Food......................3-5 C.T.
Lodging.............................10 C.T.
Blankets (2).........................2 C.T.
Bath......................................1 C.T.
Bath girl................................2 C.T.
Sponge, oil and strigil..........1 C.T.
Girl for the night...................5 C.T.
Tarn, Meat and Cot.............5 C.T.
T., Greens and Stable.........2 C.T.
A comment, or two, might be in order on this list of prices. First, it will be noted that they are not typical. In many inns, depending on the season, to be sure, and the readiness of the keeper to negotiate, one can stay for as little as two or three copper tarsks a day, everything included, within reason, of course, subject to some restraint with respect to paga, and such. Also, the bath girl, and the sponge, oil and strigil, in most establishments, come with the price of the bath itself. The prices on the list on the wall seemed excessive, perhaps to a factor of five or more. The prices, of course, were in terms of copper tarsks.
For purposes of comparison, in many paga taverns, one may have paga and food, and a girl for the alcove, if one wants, for a single copper tarsk. Dancers, to be sure, sometimes cost two.
Renegades of Gor p 51-52

My jaw dropped. Ex-CUSE Me? A bowl of paga for 2 copper tarsks? (never mind the bread, I focused in on the paga, having been influenced lately by a couple of paga swilling Tuchuks). Boy have I been overpaying! Now I was even more determined to figure out Earth equivalencies. Call it a mission, call it madness (Kurzon calls it Nyx and shakes His head).

Using highly technical mathematical instruments of measure (ie: FW intutition or the hit and miss method) I decided to see what would happen if I took the lowest Gorean coin, and equated it to the lowest Earth coin. Why? Hey I’m a FW, never ask why. What do we get then?
1 copper tarsk bit = 1 Earth penny
Hmm, both of copper, both the lowest denomination. Seemed reasonable to me. Now comes the part where I like to use the “Base 10”, or the choice JN gave us in the books to cut the copper tarsk into 4th, 8th, or 10th . Everything else worked on a base 10, let’s try this.
1 copper tarsk = 10 Earth pennies (or one dime)
A bowl of paga, being 2 copper tarsks is.....20 cents????

Now at first I though, nah. Even if Gor IS cheaper, who the heck on Earth would sell paga for 20 cents a bowl? Hold on, what is paga? I’ve been told it’s whiskey, then beer. Well, here’s a quote....

Paga: (abbr. of Paga-Sa-Tarna, lit. ‘Pleasure of the life-daughter): a grain based, fermented alcoholic beverage, somewhat like a very strong beer (Kurzon sneaks in and whispers....”Around 20% alcohol. Average Earth beer is 5%”)
“Paga, a strong, fermented drink brewed from the yellow grains of Gor's staple crop, sa-Tarna, or Life-Daughter." (Outlaw of Gor, page 74).

Oh, so paga is not distilled like whiskey or vodka, but is brewed or fermented like beer or ale. Ok, it beer. You don’t want to agree, stop reading cuz the rest of this won’t make sense to you *grin*.

Ok, still, 20 cents for a mug of beer? Hold on, when were the books written? *flips to the copywrite and sees the first ones were written in the 70’s) Hmmm. I was around in the 70’s and distinctly remember buying a mug of draft beer for 25 cents. *looks at the first calculation* Well shoot, that’s close!

If you are still with me, and are nodding, thinking, hey, that’s pretty good, then here is the summary of Gorean coinage to Earth coinage.

1 copper tarsk bit = 1 Earth penny

10 copper tarsk bits = 1 copper tarsk = a dime

100 copper tarsks = 1 silver tarsk = $10.00

10 silver tarsks = 1 gold tarn = $100.00

2 gold tarns = 1 doubleweight gold tarn = $200.00

I sat back, now being able to visualize the coinage better, and smiled. If the coinage is more like the 70’s then the prices of things sold should reflect the prices of that item in the 70’s. A chocolate bar was, what? 10 cents? 1 copper tarsk. Sound reasonable. Now while this may not equate to, say lodgings in the 70’s, keep in mind that Gor was based on cultures from Medieval and Roman times. Being a student of history, I realize something like, say lodgings, were much cheaper. If you read the quotes above, and understand that you could live on 1 gold tarn for a year, then paying 50 cents (5 copper tarsks) for a night’s lodgings in an inn of Gor makes sense. Keep your mind set Gorean, not Earthen with inflation, gouging middle men and company profits. I only equated the coinage to Earth coinage to give an easier mental picture of what your pocket change was. For people to toss around huge amounts of gold on Gor, like 5000 dwt gold tarns for a larl, is as ridiculous as paying $1,000,000.00 today for a lion. (By the way, you’d just have to kill or release the darn thing when it matured anyway, cuz they turn on you *grin*)

Merchants and Merchandise

The links below will take you to some common items sold on Gor, and a list of Merchants. If anyone wishes to comment or add to these, please click on the e-mail and let’s talk. The sooner we get all this standardized, the sooner we will have fun.

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