Broadly speaking, magic items are cerium (95%-purity lanthanides, almost entirely element 58) often clad in gold (element 79) or platinum (element 78) to avert corrosion.

But one of the reasons that Rings are difficult to make, and require a separate feat, is that they are so light as to have trouble containing a reasonable amount of spellsilver for stabilizing the magic in them.

One kilogram of spellsilver ought to cost no more than five years' wages for a 3rd-circle wizard, whose weekly wage might be in the range of 40gp.  5 * 52 * 40 ~ 10000gp per kilo of spellsilver.

A ring granting a +3 competence bonus to a skill check might cost ~1200gp, of which 900gp materials, 200gp markup and the cost of protecting magical inventory from theft, and 100gp to pay a normal 2nd-circle to work on it for 10 weeks.

A typical ring also weighs 5-10 grams, and 90 grams of spellsilver will not really fit in one.  So the price of a ring cannot be because it is made up of 90 grams of spellsilver.

What's actually going on here is more that it takes 55 grams of spellsilver to make the ring, but the magic of 50 grams of that spellsilver gets burned into 5 grams of spellsilver (cerium, element 58), laced with a seventh of a gram of starmetal (osmium, element 76), which is typically bought off-planet from the City of Brass and costs as much as 35 grams of spellsilver.  And then all of that is clad in 2 grams of platinum (element 78).

This will ultimately give Merrin the correct answer if she goes by the dominant metal in the ring by weight, though.

Broadly speaking, magic items are cerium (95%-purity lanthanides, almost entirely element 58) often clad in gold (element 79) or platinum (element 78) to avert corrosion.

But one of the reasons that Rings are difficult to make, and require a separate feat, is that they are so light as to have trouble containing a reasonable amount of spellsilver for stabilizing the magic in them.

One kilogram of spellsilver ought to cost no more than five years' wages for a 3rd-circle wizard, whose weekly wage might be in the range of 30gp.  5 * 52 * 30 ~ 7500gp per kilo of spellsilver.

A ring granting a +3 competence bonus to a skill check might cost ~1200gp, of which 900gp materials, 200gp markup and the cost of protecting magical inventory from theft, and 100gp to pay a normal 2nd-circle to work on it for 10 weeks.

A typical ring also weighs 5-10 grams, and 900gp / 120 grams of spellsilver will not really fit in one.  So the price of a ring cannot be because it is made up of 120 grams of spellsilver.

What's actually going on here is more that it takes 80 grams of spellsilver to make the ring, but the magic of 75 grams of that spellsilver gets burned into 5 grams of spellsilver (cerium, element 58), laced with a seventh of a gram of starmetal (osmium, element 76), which is typically bought off-planet from the City of Brass and costs as much as 40 grams of spellsilver.  And then all of that is clad in 2 grams of platinum (element 78).

This will ultimately give Merrin the correct answer if she goes by the dominant metal in the ring by weight, though.

Broadly speaking, magic items are cerium (95%-purity lanthanides, almost entirely element 58) often clad in gold (element 79) or platinum (element 78) to avert corrosion.

But one of the reasons that Rings are difficult to make, and require a separate feat, is that they are so light as to have trouble containing a reasonable amount of spellsilver for stabilizing the magic in them.

One kilogram of spellsilver ought to cost no more than five years' wages for a 3rd-circle wizard, whose weekly wage might be in the range of 30gp.  5 * 52 * 30 ~ 7500gp per kilo of spellsilver.

A ring granting a +3 competence bonus to a skill check might cost ~1200gp, of which 900gp materials, 200gp markup and the cost of protecting magical inventory from theft, and 100gp to pay a talented 4th-circle to work on it for a week.

A typical ring also weighs 5-10 grams, and 900gp / 120 grams of spellsilver will not really fit in one.  So the price of a ring cannot be because it is made up of 120 grams of spellsilver.

What's actually going on here is more that it takes 80 grams of spellsilver to make the ring, but the magic of 75 grams of that spellsilver gets burned into 5 grams of spellsilver (cerium, element 58), laced with a seventh of a gram of starmetal (osmium, element 76), which is typically bought off-planet from the City of Brass and costs as much as 40 grams of spellsilver.  And then all of that is clad in 2 grams of platinum (element 78).

This will ultimately give Merrin the correct answer if she goes by the dominant metal in the ring by weight, though.

Broadly speaking, spellsilver is 95%-purity lanthanides, almost entirely cerium / element 58; often clad in gold (element 79) or platinum (element 78) to avert corrosion.

But one of the reasons that Rings are difficult to make, and require a separate feat, is that they are so light as to have trouble containing a reasonable amount of spellsilver for stabilizing the magic in them.

One kilogram of spellsilver ought to cost no more than five years' wages for a 3rd-circle wizard, whose weekly wage might be in the range of 30gp.  5 * 52 * 30 ~ 7500gp per kilo of spellsilver.

A ring granting a +3 competence bonus to a skill check might cost ~1200gp, of which 900gp materials, 200gp markup and the cost of protecting magical inventory from theft, and 100gp to pay a talented 4th-circle to work on it for a week.

A typical ring also weighs 5-10 grams, and 900gp / 120 grams of spellsilver will not really fit in one.  So the price of a ring cannot be because it is made up of 120 grams of spellsilver.

What's actually going on here is more that it takes 80 grams of spellsilver to make the ring, but the magic of 75 grams of that spellsilver gets burned into 5 grams of spellsilver (cerium, element 58), laced with a seventh of a gram of starmetal (osmium, element 76), which is typically bought off-planet from the City of Brass and costs as much as 40 grams of spellsilver.  And then all of that is clad in 2 grams of platinum (element 78).

This will ultimately give Merrin the correct answer if she goes by the dominant metal in the ring by weight, though.

Broadly speaking, spellsilver is 95%-purity lanthanides, almost entirely cerium / element 58; often clad in gold (element 79) or platinum (element 78) to avert corrosion.

But one of the reasons that Rings are difficult to make, and require a separate feat, is that they are so light as to have trouble containing a reasonable amount of metal for stabilizing the magic in them.

One kilogram of spellsilver ought to cost no more than five years' wages for a 3rd-circle wizard, whose weekly wage might be in the range of 30gp.  5 * 52 * 30 ~ 7500gp per kilo of spellsilver.

A ring granting a +3 competence bonus to a skill check might cost ~1200gp, of which 900gp materials, 200gp markup and the cost of protecting magical inventory from theft, and 100gp to pay a talented 4th-circle to work on it for a week.

A typical ring also weighs 5-10 grams, and 900gp / 120 grams of spellsilver will not really fit in one.  So the price of a ring cannot be because it is made up of 120 grams of spellsilver.

What's actually going on here is more that it takes 80 grams of spellsilver to make the ring, but the magic of 75 grams of that spellsilver gets burned into 5 grams of spellsilver (cerium, element 58), laced with a seventh of a gram of starmetal (osmium, element 76), which is typically bought off-planet from the City of Brass and costs as much as 40 grams of spellsilver.  And then all of that is clad in 2 grams of platinum (element 78).

This will ultimately give Merrin the correct answer if she goes by the dominant metal in the ring by weight, though.

Broadly speaking, spellsilver is 95%-purity lanthanides, almost entirely cerium / element 58; often clad in gold (element 79) or platinum (element 78) to avert corrosion.

But one of the reasons that Rings are difficult to make, and require a separate feat, is that they are so light as to have trouble containing a reasonable amount of material for stabilizing the magic in them.

One kilogram of spellsilver ought to cost no more than five years' wages for a 3rd-circle wizard, whose weekly wage might be in the range of 30gp.  5 * 52 * 30 ~ 7500gp per kilo of spellsilver.

A ring granting a +3 competence bonus to a skill check might cost ~1200gp, of which 900gp materials, 200gp markup and the cost of protecting magical inventory from theft, and 100gp to pay a talented 4th-circle to work on it for a week.

A typical ring also weighs 5-10 grams, and 900gp / 120 grams of spellsilver will not really fit in one.  So the price of a ring cannot be because it is made up of 120 grams of spellsilver.

What's actually going on here is more that it takes 80 grams of spellsilver to make the ring, but the magic of 75 grams of that spellsilver gets burned into 5 grams of spellsilver (cerium, element 58), laced with a seventh of a gram of starmetal (osmium, element 76), which is typically bought off-planet from the City of Brass and costs as much as 40 grams of spellsilver.  And then all of that is clad in 2 grams of platinum (element 78).

This will ultimately give Merrin the correct answer if she goes by the dominant metal in the ring by weight, though.