# What would you carry back from the dragon's hoard? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 28, 2017, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-carry-back-from-the-dragons-hoard/792326 "2017-07-28T14:55:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2017, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-carry-back-from-the-dragons-hoard/792326/41 "2017-07-29T20:18:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Diamonds are worth a lot of money mostly just because deBeers says they are. If you bring back super-valuable diamonds from an unknown (non-deBeers) source, they’re going to make sure they’re not worth a lot of money. And some of their ways of making sure of that might be quite unpleasant. Yes, I, too, read [_Stone 588_](https://www.amazon.com/Stone-588-Gerald-Browne/dp/0446601705), but De Beers [isn’t the monopoly it used to be](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers#Diamond_monopoly). But I still think that if you turn up with a 100+ carat gem quality diamond–cut or not–you’lll find someone eager to say “Shut up and take my money.” (For now, at least–I have little doubt that we aren’t too many years away from multi-hundred carat gem-quality artificial diamonds–the [nearest diamond factory](http://sciodiamond.com/) is only around 15 miles from me–the products are small now, but they’ll get bigger.) ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2017, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-carry-back-from-the-dragons-hoard/792326/42 "2017-07-29T21:18:11Z")
I think a wise move would be to bring an assortment of gems back in one of the wooden chests lying around. Then bury the chest in my own back yard for a year or so. When I “find” it, the whole thing will be mine because it is on my land. The chest and gems will (hopefully?) carbon date to some ancient period, and the horde will be dated by the wood of the chest. No responsibility of mine to explain the origin, the original owner of the chest was probably a seafarer - or a pirate even - and bedevil DeBeers. Either way, a few gold ingots would be of use, but mostly I’d want gems. Any beautifully worked settings containing emeralds would be a bonus find for myself and Celtling. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2017, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-carry-back-from-the-dragons-hoard/792326/43 "2017-07-29T21:54:40Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > For a few smaller ones this would work. For a fist sized uncut, they could tell it wasnt from Arkansas. I knew that there were none nearly that size, but I didn’t know how small they were. The largest found doesn’t have a good picture, but here’s [the second largest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_Murfreesboro). About $119,000 today. hmm… move to Astoria and claim One-Eyed Willy’s treasure? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-carry-back-from-the-dragons-hoard/792326/44 "2017-07-30T06:14:53Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Do you not think you would get similar scrutiny if you showed up with pounds of gold, silver, or other precious stones? My spouse and I showed up at a metals dealer with a 1 ounce ingot of gold and sold it with no questions asked so… um… no, I don’t think the gold and silver would rate much scrutiny. Probably not best to show up with 40 pounds at once, but selling it off in bits and pieces (like old coins) probably not a problem. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-carry-back-from-the-dragons-hoard/792326/45 "2017-07-30T09:43:37Z")
Maybe the young maiden. Not that I’m going to start multiple-page thread about how young women are superior to older ones or that there’s anything wrong about my wife at all, it seems an essential component of the “live happily ever after” package. And we all need that. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-carry-back-from-the-dragons-hoard/792326/46 "2017-07-30T12:07:47Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Are piles of books things usually depicted as being in dragon hoards? The kind of books I’m thinking about are. I’m not after his Harlequin Romance collection. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-carry-back-from-the-dragons-hoard/792326/47 "2017-07-30T17:00:35Z")
How valuable are books going to be? Even if they’re magical in the fantasy world where the dragon comes from, they won’t be magical when you get them home. Can you even read them? Where’s the Rosetta Stone? Any fanboy can make you up a “tome” full of gibberish. (It’s a thing among Lovecraft fans! We bury 'em in the garden to “age” them.) If you could read 'em, will that be of interest to anyone? Say one of them has a really cool and unique religion, described in great detail. You might build a growing and vigorous cult around it, and rake in a lot of money. But, again, you can do that for yourself, making it all up from nothing. Seems like a dead end, unless you’ve got reasons I’m not thinking of. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-carry-back-from-the-dragons-hoard/792326/48 "2017-07-30T17:46:42Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Most importantly, I want to bring back all my extremities and bits intact! > > Wait, you were talking treasure… > > I’d probably opt for things like gold coins and ingots. They’re fairly small and compact and it’s easy to convert gold into cash these days. You can sell gems and they’d probably be more profitable, but I don’t know how to go about doing that. I think I’d opt for a moderate but pretty sure profit over a riskier big score. You are a looter after my own heart.😃 This is exactly what I would do. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-carry-back-from-the-dragons-hoard/792326/49 "2017-07-31T00:47:54Z")
I would take the Arkenstone and ransom it to the dwarfs. Some mithril would be nice too. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-carry-back-from-the-dragons-hoard/792326/50 "2017-07-31T01:11:16Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I would take the Arkenstone and ransom it to the dwarfs. Some mithril would be nice too. And how well can you defend yourself against a lot of pissed off Dwarves intent on reclaiming a cultural treasure? :dubious: Someone above suggested that Mithril is aluminum, but I tend to think it is Titanium. Either way, it is no great treasure on this world. Besides, Mithril came from Moria, not Erebor. From [lotr.wikia.com](http://lotr.wikia.com); In TA 2770, Smaug came from the mountains in the north, drawn by great wealth amassed by the Dwarven kingdom of the Lonely Mountain, which included gold, gemstones, silver, pearls, the many-faceted crystals of emerald, sapphire and diamond, and the famed Arkenstone. So yeah, I’m going for the emeralds and sapphires. Plus a little gold just because. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-carry-back-from-the-dragons-hoard/792326/51 "2017-07-31T01:23:18Z")
Sure, some gold and gems of course. It’d be really cool to have dragon head/hands as some have suggested too. But what about scales? Make a dragon scale suit of armor. Or a dragon scale coffee table… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-carry-back-from-the-dragons-hoard/792326.md?page=2)