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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;savitale, post: 8280169, member: 95284&quot;]I believe jewelry may have been priced quite differently than how it is done in the West today. Most gold jewelry, I think, was a form a bullion. If I understand correctly, even today in India simple gold jewelry (without precious stones of course) is sold by the weight. </p><p><br /></p><p>The time period is off by a bit, but Diocletian&#039;s Edict on Maximum Prices gives you some idea of the cost of jewelry at the end of the 3rd century. See below. This is taken from a translation by A. Kropoff, available at <a href="http://kark.uib.no/antikk/dias/priceedict.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://kark.uib.no/antikk/dias/priceedict.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://kark.uib.no/antikk/dias/priceedict.pdf</a> . The unit of currency here is the <i>denarii communes</i>, which was a unit of account not an actual coin. However the <i>nummus</i>, a copper coin with a little bit of silver, was in theory valued at 25 <i>denarii communes. </i></p><p><br /></p><p>Gold, refined, in bars or in coins (1 lb) = 72.000</p><p>Spun gold (1 lb) = 72.000</p><p>Goldsmith working in gold (1 lb) = 5.000</p><p>Gold cutters making gold foil (1 lb) = 3.000</p><p>For drawers of gold in the leaf (1 lb) = 250</p><p>Maker of gold thread, gold spinner (1 lb) = 2.500</p><p>Goldsmith for simple work (1 uncia) = 50</p><p>Goldsmith for precise work (1 uncia) = 80</p><p>Refined silver of the first quality (1 lb) = 6.000</p><p>Silversmith for work of the first quality (1 lb) = 300</p><p>Silversmith for work of the second quality (1 lb) = 150</p><p>Silversmith for work of the third quality (1 lb) = 75</p><p><br /></p><p>So, if you provided the gold you could hire a goldsmith to work it into jewelry for 5,000 d.c. or 200 <i>nummi</i> per pound.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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