Paid In Gems

I just had a thought.

I'm a big fan of D&D, my favorite editions are first and second, but I really like the d20 system.

There was only the barest hint of an economic system to the game. Everything was based on the treasure you got from the monsters. Although the locals did have their trades and shops you could go to for supplies.

The standard coins, at least in the first edition were Platinum, gold, silver electrum, and copper. In the d20 electrum was disregarded because most players believed there was no such thing as electrum but as it turns out the ancient Romans had them. And electrum does also occur naturally in nature. The standard coin was gold, although one platinum piece was worth five gold pieces.

The other standard was gemstones. These ranged from 10 gold to 5000 gold or more. The more common ones, such as banded agates, were worth ten to as little as 1 gold depending upon quality, while the rarest ones were the most valuable, such as a Star Sapphire, and were worth 5000 gold or more. 1 rare human head sized ruby in one famous giant module called Ruins Of The Undermountain was worth a cool quarter of a million in gold if you found it, but it was tricky to find, and that's putting it mildly.

Often as the game progressed, I found myself carrying far more gems than coins because it's easier to carry a small gem worth fifty gold rather than ten gold coins that weighed a pound (in the game rules).

Now, let's bring this into the modern age.

Suppose, just suppose, you owe money to the bank. You want to make a payment but you don't have any cash on hand.

So, do you think they'd take the payment in diamonds rather than cold hard cash? Unlike the guy who paid in thousands of pennies, would they have to take a payment in gemstones?

Maybe someday, if I ever become rich by winning the hundred million dollar lottery, I will find out.

Ah, one can dream, can't they?

It is perfectly fine to do this. You just have to go a detour to a pawn-shop or simply sell the gems to someone else.
To you, there is not much of a difference, and I don't know why banks would want to be involved?

However, if you're really broke, then obviously you can be forced to get your stuff evaluated and sold, and the bank takes the money. So it too is the same thing.