Daily Debate: If Our World’s Gems Were Priced as Rupees, Which Real Piece of Jewelry Would Be Worth the Most in Hyrule?

Hyrule has a curious form of currency. Most fantasy societies use coinage as their medium of exchange. Instead, the Zelda universe buys and sells exclusively in gemstones known as Rupees. Such a thing would be unheard of in our world, as precious stones are a rarity in most locales. As a thought experiment, what if we were to take real pieces of jewelry, and price them against the Rupee? The value of the stones would be based on their color, just like it is in the Zelda games. With this in mind, what real jewellery piece do you think would be worth the most in Hyrule?

One of the world’s most famous jewellery collections are the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. Let’s look at the centerpiece of the set in our featured image — St. Edward’s Crown — which is valued at roughly $40,000,000. On its front façade, we can see seven red stones, eight blue/turquoise, four green and about 134 clear or silver gems. After some multiplication to add the Rupee value of each stone, and we get 26,984 Rupees for the front half of the crown. Multiply that by two to include the back, and the crown is worth roughly 53,968 Rupees. To estimate what a Rupee would be worth in real life money, we now take the forty million dollars and divide it by the total value of the crown in Rupees. One Hylian Rupee winds up costing $741.18.

Hmm, I think Beedle is short changing me.

Now its your turn. What real life jewelry piece do you think would be worth the most in Hyrule? Let us know in the comments below.