How many sickles make a galleon

So say in American money we have dollars, dimes, quarters, pennys, and nickles. If there are 29 knuts in a sickle and there is 17 sickles in a galleon then how many galleons are there in a regular dollar. The three denominations of wizarding currency were sometimes represented with the following set of symbols: [1]. According to J. Rowling , the approximate value of a Galleon is " About five Great British pounds, though the exchange rate varies!

With this information, we can calculate the value of wizarding currency in Muggle money. As the gold standard values of wizarding currencies are unknown, it is difficult to estimate a present day conversion rate, and one would have to rely on Rowling's older approximations.

The "gold coins the size of hubcaps" mentioned in reference to the Quidditch World Cup would be much larger than the British five-pound Quintuple Sovereign today sold for its bullion value of hundreds of pounds sterling though this hubcap reference may have been an exaggeration. However, it is unclear whether the coins were Galleons, or the currency of some other Wizard community. Certainly, if the coins were indeed of such size, there could have been no talking about "handfuls" of them.

Harry Potter's money stored in Gringotts. It should be mentioned that Rowling's exchange rates between Galleons and Muggle currency are very far off from reality, assuming that Galleons are made from gold.

Wizarding money comes in coins only; there are no Galleon bills. As such, wizards have money pouches that they typically hang off their belts or under their robes rather than wallets. It is believed that the odd numbers of Knuts in a Sickle and Sickles in a Galleon is intended as a comment on British money before decimalization, with pounds, shillings, and pence being in an odd ratio to each other.

There are a number of different calculations about the value of the individual pieces of Wizard currency. Internal evidence in the fourth and later books seems to match this. It is also mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone that Harry paid seven Galleons for his wand and that Ron was using his brother's old wand, the implication being that his family could not afford a new one. This would make it more likely that Ron's family could ill afford to buy a new wand for him, instead giving him Charlie's old wand.

However, this is not necessary to the story and makes the Weasleys' lack of funds all the more striking. This is rather an excessive amount for a second prank. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , Ron says he wished he had not purchased a dancing shamrock hat so that he might afford omnioculars for 10 Galleons. Harry purchases three sets of omnioculars for himself, Ron, and Hermione. While Harry says Ron won't be getting a Christmas present for "about 10 years" this still seems to be an excessive amount to drop at once.

It is possible that the author simply had not worked out the conversion from wizarding to muggle money until time came to write the forewords of Quidditch Through the Ages and Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them , which came out after the first three books were written. It is also possible that the author, in writing those forewords, confused the values of the Sickle and the Galleon, as the apparent value of the Sickle in the first three books does tally with the stated value of the Galleon.

It's certainly true that wizarding prices in the fourth and later books of the series match the values given in those two books, and the interview with the exception of the price for The Daily Prophet. In any event, a value for the Galleon is explicitly given in the foreword to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them , and that value seems to have been used for monetary conversions in all following books.

On the other hand, the use of magic will significantly distort the economy from what we muggles expect, because chattels can be created and changed to other chattels effectively at no economic cost. Around the edge of each Galleon is a series of numerals representing a serial number referring to the goblin that cast the coin. They are gold, silver, and bronze, respectively.

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