This is a question that has been on my mind for a while and I've finally decided to do some research and find out just how much a Septim is worth.
Now, there are 2 different values a Septim could have in today's market. I'm going to answer both.
1. The Septim is made of gold. Gold is very valuable in today's market, so how much would the Septim be worth if we are talking about what it's made of? The Septim can be compared to a modern gold coin in terms of size. A modern day gold coin is 143 US Dollars. So a Septim would be worth 143 US dollars, 123.76 Euros, 109.65 Pounds, 16024.58 Japanese Yen, and 966.39 Chinese Yuan. Sorry if your currency was left out.
2. This time I'm not talking about its material, I'm going to calculate its worth using the fake amount it's worth in TES, if that makes sense. If you don't get it just keep reading, I think you'll understand later.
So the way I'm going to do this is by comparing the prices of certainty items from TES to its real counterpart.
1. Cabbage. Cabbage is 2 Septims in Skyrim. On
average, today green cabbage sells for 58 cents. Yes I looked up the price of cabbage, here's the link: ers.usda.gov/webdocs/DataFiles/51035/cabbage.xlsx?v=42082
To make things easy let's just round, let's say cabbage sells for 50 cents in stead. So 1 dollar = 4 Septims or 1 Septim = 25 cents.
2. Carrot. A carrot is worth 1 Septim in Skyrim. So that means a carrot should be 25 cents in real life, but does it actually? Well, 1 pound of carrots is 74 cents, here's the link ers.usda.gov/webdocs/DataFiles/51035/carrots.xlsx?v=42082
So how many carrots are in a pound? 5 average sized carrots are in a pound, here's another link thekitchn.com/heres-what-1-pound-of-carrots-looks-like-232314
74 divided by 5 is 14.8. That's actually pretty close to the 25 cents it should be. Maybe Tamriel grows less carrots and they a more valuable.
3. A Horse. A horse in Skyrim is 1000 Septims, and in Oblivion the cheapest horse is also 1000 and the most expensive is 3000, I think. Correct me if I'm wrong please. So the average of those 2 is 2000. So on average a horse in real life should be 500 dollars. Well that's just not even close. An average horse costs 3,876 dollars. But, this can be understood. Horses in today's time aren't the main means of transportation, they are much more valuable to people than they would've been a thousand years ago. For instance, let's say your car explodes. Would you be pissed off? Yes. Would you cry? Maybe if you own a 500,000 dollar car, but if it's your average car then no. Now, your pet dog dies. Are you gonna cry? Yeah, you probably would at least be sad. I would, I love my dog. And for you horse people out there, would you be sad if your horse died? I'd bet so.
So the horse being different is understandable. Let's move on.
4. Ceramic Bowl. A Ceramic Bowl in Skyrim, at its cheapest, is 5 Septims. At its most expensive it's 20 dollars. So an average Bowl should be about $1.25. And expensive China would be 5 dollars. Well a plastic bowl at Walmart is 1.86,. Link is here walmart.com/ip/Mixing-Bowl-6-qt-Plastic-Red-Blue-TT0242/115730490
So it's not to far off, but expensive China can go for Hundreds of dollars, I shouldn't have to give you guys a link to know that. I guess the people of Tamriel don't care that much about bowls since they aren't very expensive.
So out of 5 items, 3 had the same area of a Septim = 25 cents. 1 can be explained why it doesn't fit and the fifth just doesn't make sense. So I'd leave that up to Bethesda making an error.
But, there is something else. The most expensive house in Skyrim is Proudspire Manor, a pretty damn nice home. It costs 25,000 Septims. If 1 Septim is 25 cents then Proudspire would cost about 6,250. I'm no real estate agent, but that seems way off. And it's the same for the rest of the houses.
So, in conclusion the Septim has no real life value comparison because the cost of stuff makes no sense in Tamriel. A house costing 25,000 carrots? Yeah, idk about you but I call bullshit on that. The small items had something going for them, but the houses make no sense. Maybe that's just Bethesda making an error. It probably is. If it is then the Septim can be assumed to be about 25 cents.
Hope you enjoyed.