@MisterChris717 We could use math to answer this.
There are about 77 iron ore per chunk.
There are about 3.097 diamond ore per chunk.
Craftymynes' world has an area of 200k*200k, which gives us 40000000000² blocks in area.
40000000000/16 gives us how many chunks there are, 2500000000 chunks exist in Craftymynes.
2500000000 * 3.097 Gives us 7742500000, that's how many diamonds exist in Craftymynes.
2500000000 * 77 Gives us 192500000000, that's how much iron exists in Craftymynes
192500000000 / 7742500000 Gives us 24.862770423, we can round off that to 25.
So that's 25 iron per 1 diamond.
Hope this helps! :)

Im not claiming to be a math expert but does this account for diamonds only spawning below Y16? Because if Im not mistaken all you really did was divide 77 by 3.097.

^

If you want to continue down mister Chris's thought process of valuing resources based on relative abundance, you can use the fact that fortune III on average increases drops for diamond by 120% to set a lower limit on the value. If you assume all diamonds are mined with fortune III, you get 11 iron per diamond (this is the lowest reasonable ratio). You would need more information about how frequently different pickaxes are used, but, to set limits, in terms of relative abundance, there are 11-25 iron per diamond.

But, this is still oversimplified. A majority of the mining being done on the server occurs at Y =< 16, where all diamond ore is generated. This is what BluePlauge is referring to. If we assume iron veins are uniformly distributed in 0 < Y < 64, the relative amount of iron available to players mining at "diamond level" is 1/4 the absolute amount. So, for these players, the lower limit is 3 iron per diamond. But now to determine to actual value, you have to consider another variable: how often people mine in this fashion.

In the end though, I think this is a pointless exercise. As Sofatroll said, iron can be easily farmed. Its a commodity not a currency. I wouldn't value the US dollar on the number of potatoes in supply. And given though people only ever purchase with diamonds, and rarely with iron, I don't feel especially to determine an exchange rate.

Regarding this bit:

@WBlaine But, this is still oversimplified. A majority of the mining being done on the server
occurs at Y =< 16, where all diamond ore is generated.
...
But now to determine to actual value, you have to consider another variable: how often people mine in this fashion.

You really cant get a decent conversion without taking into account how people mine for different resources. As you showed mining at y<16 you end up with about 3 iron per diamond, but if I'm mining for iron I generally go caving at y>16, making for a much higher ratio more like the 11:1.

It's even more important for gold. If you assume people only mine at y<16 then 1 stack of gold is worth just over 140 diamonds. However if you assume everyone mines for gold in a mesa at y>32 then 1 stack of gold is only worth 12 diamonds.

You've obviously also got to think about how people value these things. Redstone is a great is example. Based on abundance a stack of redstone blocks should be worth about 15 diamonds, but in my experience people will sell for a fraction of that because the fools don't value redstone.

TL;DR This:

@MisterChris717 I'd say that we can't really pin down a specific price for iron per diamond.

If you want to calculate the number of diamonds in a world, you also should consider that they can be found in chests, and a diamond block can be found in some woodland mansions.

It is also important to consider that most diamonds eventually get crafted into tools that get lost when a player dies, and a lot of players who have a lot of diamonds eventually quit the server and those diamonds are lost.

You can actually farm iron with Iron farms, does it change a thing? I don't think so, but I'm asking away

Wow great insight. thank you everyone.
I have many uses for iron in my builds and projects.

I think I will set a rate of 18 iron ingots to 1 diamond ratio as a possible alternate payment rate.

As for Gold or other items I guess it will be like so many other trades as a case by case need basic as opposed to a straight exchange ratio.

OK we are getting off track to my original question. Put simply ....what does the majority of craftymyners feel is a fair alternative amount instead of a diamond? I dont want to stop taking or replace diamonds at all. I sell alot of items and often I hear I need it but.... I am new..... or... I dont have that many diamonds.... or will you consider this item. More often than not most new players have iron, gold or other ore or item. What I had hoped for was to find out what most people thought was a fair trade instead of diamond.
As I said I have settled on 18 iron ingots to 1 diamond ratio. Not exclusively or to replace diamonds. Just if I decide to accept the offer I would like to be reasonably fair to buyer and seller. I hope this clears up any confusion.

aint it worth 8 emeralds

@HaloNest You can actually farm iron with Iron farms, does it change a thing? I don't think so, but I'm asking away

I used to get a fair quality of iron last map with a small 12 villager iron farm. I've seen a number of other people with the same farm. I think it's contribution to server iron supply is not inconsequential. Sorry I can't be more quantitative

I would love to give this topic more attention than I have right now to talk about it, but here's a summary of my thoughts:

Valuation of the diamond is impacted on several nonlinear factors I can think of: immediate availability, rate of replenishment, and usefulness (lets call it the ARU score).

Skimming over each of the factors:

Immediate availability of diamonds is a number that will steadily increase for the life of the server map (making the assumption that we'd never mine all the diamonds while still stockpiling and using the mend enchant). So that slowly decreases the value of the diamond.

Rate of replenishment is more complicated, where you have to take into account an average player's effort to get a diamond (diamonds per hour). And worse, this has the most weight in determining the diamond value. This factor plays heaviest into the idea of "supply and demand." In general, the rate of replenishment for the diamond is incredibly low compared to most other ores since all others can also be obtained through smelting, use of iron/gold farms, villager trades, etc.

Lastly, is use. Depending on your playstyle, Iron or emeralds have the highest usability values, meaning you're able to do/get more things out of them. Diamonds are more of a "secondary" use, as you want better tools and gear to get/do more things.

I'm not going to pretend that I understand all the relationships that play into the value of the diamond, but I do know there are a ton of things that have to play into it, and those factors change by the hour. Here's my observations:

1. The supply of diamonds is ever increasing due to its low use value
2. Despite the increase in supply, it is severely outpaced by iron and emeralds due to villager trades and iron farms
3. Gold has the lowest ARU score, and would have been a great alternative to the diamond if it weren't for the fact you can smelt and use gold farms to quickly inflate the supply overnight.

Based off what I understand, here's some of my informal price list:

1:37 diamond to iron, driven by irons high rate of replenishment (my personal exchange rate is more like 1:8 because I basically breathe iron for life).
1:18 diamond to gold, driven by golds low use & immediate availability
1:85 diamond to emerald, driven by villager trades

... and then these values are altered further by the supply and demand of resources when you're actually interested in the trade.

@humfrydog I've helped newbies and not so newbies by paying them a flat rate for their time in 30 or 60 minute increments. And then converting that to whatever resource they are looking for from me. I have expectations of certain amounts collected, but it's largely off the honor system from both of us.

super valgys