SmugFrog said:
This was pretty entertaining, but I've seen a lot of people arguing that his bottlecaps were technically worthless as they were not Nuka Cola bottlecaps.
While some ingame descriptions state, that it's NukaCola caps, specifically, being used as currency, in New Vegas, you'll notice Sunset Sarsaparilla bottles also produce caps when opened so, at least in some areas, alternate brand caps are also accepted (though now that you mention, beer does not produce caps when consumed and the "my office now smells like beer" tweet indicates a lot of those were beer caps).
Anyway, comparing value of things throughout time is a very tricky proposition, since value of a tender only exists in relation to wares it is capable of purchasing. Comparing caps to gold in a wasteland scenario will likely yield a result favourable to caps on account of comparatively low demand for gold. If you compared the price of food, which iirc is generally a stable value item as a staple product of just about any economy with a constant level of demand (might want to take this with a grain of salt though, I did not major in historical economy
), pre-war food costs about 5 caps per 1 pound serving. Some comparable real product links:
-DAK canned ham, as an example of Cram-like canned meat, 12$ per pound
http://www.amazon.com/DAK-Premium-Ham/dp/B003T0W5LK
-Crunchips, comparable to potato crisps/junk food (note, that pack size is 6,02 oz, so price for pound would be a bit over 10$):
http://www.germandeli.com/Lorenz-Crunchips-Paprika-175g-6-2oz
-a selection of snack cakes, corresponding to Fancy Lads Snack Cakes. Website helpfully provides price per ounce, which (with one somewhat more frugal example) seems to hover around 55-60c (for about 9.90-10.80$ a pound)
-Pork and Beans (15 ounce can, but it still totals less than 1$ per pound)
http://www.amazon.com/Van-Camps-Pork-Beans-15/dp/B00I9VCRJ4
Those prices of course do not account for inevitable value drop due to irradiation, thus only reflecting maximum value of the relevant food item. As such, aside from pork and beans (it's not good being a bean counter anyway), it would seem the top assignable value of a cap, using food as a frame of reference, is a little over 2$. Luckily, New Vegas gives us semi-common fresh, clean produce for comparison:
Fresh carrots, 2 pound pack, 5$ a pound:
http://www.amazon.com/CARROTS-WHOLE-FRESH-PRODUCE-VEGETABLES/dp/B00837XYD2
Apples, a tad over 6$ per pound:
http://www.amazon.com/Gala-Apples-Fresh-Produce-Fruit/dp/B007OC5X40
Taters, 2.50$ish:
http://www.amazon.com/POTATOES-RUSSET-FRESH-PRODUCE-LBS/dp/B007S9ULGY
Pears, 6$ per pound:
http://www.harryanddavid.com/h/fruit-gift/pears/1
Fresh produce, which is IMO a better indicator, comes in at about 1$ per cap, with potatoes predictably lowering the bar. Still, I may not agree with all the points raised, but nice vid nonetheless, thanks for posting. Oh and don't get excited for Fallout 4, it will ruin EVERYTHING, FOREVER because of REASONS!
