Hello, question about Westerosi currency originated by the show (but does not require watching it). In the last episode Davos offers 30 golden dragons to bribe two guards to ignore his boat. The scene is framed as if he is giving them a nice but not astronomical sum, but am I correct to think that amount of money is actually kind of a fortune in Westeros, worth more than any cargo a smuggler could carry on a small boat?

warsofasoiaf:

Well, we can’t necessarily use the dragon in the books, we need to use the show’s numbers to determine how valuable this is, so my knowledge is limited to what I’ve seen. As far as gold is concerned, Brienne had an attempted ransom for 300 gold dragons which Jaime remarks is a pretty hefty one. Tyrion pays 20 dragons to each dwarf to make up for their public humiliation. Conversely, bread costs a few coppers, and cheap prostitutes are referred to as ‘five-copper,’ whether or not that is actually the price, that’s shown to be cheap. 100 stags is considered a healthy bounty for the Hound, so we have some idea that dragons are not commoner fare.

With that, 30 dragons between two guards seems like a rather immense sum, because only nobles are throwing around double digits of gold dragons. Unfortunately, I do not watch the show, but I believe this question would tickle @racefortheironthrone‘s fancy.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

Yeah, they goofed on this: 30 gold is about ten average annual incomes for a member of the smallfolk.