Now to calculate it's value we need to know what exactly the rupee is made of. Our first hint comes from the first Zelda game 'The Legend of Zelda' where rupees are called Rupies but the manual calls them Rubies Which might be a typing error. Rubies are exclusively red but the rupees (or rupies in LoZ1) come in multiple colours but rubies are t he impure form of the mineral corundum. Pure corundum is colourless but if an element like chromium is present when it is forming, it gains various shades of colours. Almost every colour of the rainbow. Red corundum is called ruby but what about the other shades of corundum. These are called Sapphires, it is commonly believed that sapphires are blue in colour but they aren't just blue, they are every other colour corundum exists.
Now another thought must have come to your mind that why I am so sure that these are corundums and why not any other mineral. The answer lies in their shape, minerals are arranged into 7 crystal families based on the arrangement of their molecules, and corundum comes in the hexagonal category. Depending on the game, rupees are hexagonal bi-pyramids or hexagonal bi-frustum and either way they lie in the hexagonal category. Another link to strengthen my claim is pleochroism, it is an optical illusion certain gems are able to create in which when the gem is rotated the colour changes suddenly, it happens due to refraction of light and scattering of light. If you look at rupees from the Ocarina of Time (the above gif), you can see strong changes in colour when it rotates and this capacity of pleochroism and diversity of colours is only seen in corundum. Thus rupees are certainly corundums.
Now to find it's worth we will need it's height, volume and density. The height of young link is about 4'2''. Brace Yourselves there's gonna be hardcore mathematics on the play here. So, by comparing it, the height comes to be 24.22 in., the base comes to be 5 in. and edge comes up to be 15.5 in. As it is a regular hexagon thus it can be divided into 2 isosceles trapeziums which are congruent. So we need to find the area of a single trapezium and multiply it y 2. The area of a trapezium is the sum of the parallel lines divided by 2 multiplied by the height. So the area is(15.5 in. + 24.22 in.)/2 * 2.5 in. which = 49.65 sq. in. and since we have 2 trapeziums the total area of the base is 99.3 sq. in. The volume of a by-pyramid is 2/3 * base area * height which equals 2/3 * 99.3 * 2.5 which is equal to 165.5 cubic in. Now coming over to the density, the density of impure corundum tends to vary but the average density of sapphire is 65.22 grams per cubic inch. So by get that mass of a single rupee is 10,793.3 grams.
Now that we have it's mass, we can get to it's value. The value of a sapphire tends to be between $250 - $750 per carat. we will assume that it lies on the lower edge of the range because then the true value will not be less than it. Drum Rolls Please
the value of a Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time rupee is a whopping
$13,492,448.75
No wonder link goes around smashing everyone's pots to find them
