- "The gold ones are Galleons" [...] "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it’s easy enough."
- — Rubeus Hagrid to Harry Potter[src]
The Galleon is a gold coin with the highest value in wizarding currency. There is one Gaellon to seventeen Sickles and four-hundred and ninety three Knuts[1], which is equal to five pounds.[2] It first appears in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
History[]
The earliest known use of the currency was in the fourteenth century when Barberus Bragge awarded a prize of 150 Galleons to whoever caught a Golden Snidget in a game of Quidditch. In honour of that prize fund, 150 points is now given to the team whose Seeker catches the Golden Snitch. In those days, 150 Galleons was equivalent to over a million Galleons today.[3]
In the Apothecary's, silver unicorn horns are on sale for twenty-one Galleons. Harry Potter bought his wand for seven Galleons at Ollivanders.[1]
Arthur Weasley once won seven-hundred Galleons in the annual Grand Prize Galleon Draw.[4] Hermione Granger's parents gave her ten Galleons when she needed to buy an owl at the Magical Menagerie but she decided to adopt a cat, Crookshanks.[5]
Arthur bet one Galleon on Ireland to win the final of the 422nd Quidditch World Cup in Ludo Bagman's betting pool. Fred and George Weasley bet forty-two Galleons, fifteen Sickles and three Knuts that Ireland would win but Viktor Krum would catch the Snitch.[6]
Trivia[]
- Quidditch Through the Ages says that Comic Relief is a charity has raised over 250 million dollars is equivalent to over 34 million Galleons.[7]
Notes and sources[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 5
- ↑ WEB LINK Comic Relief Live Chat
- ↑ Quidditch Through the Ages, Chapter Four: The Arrival of the Golden Snitch
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 1
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 4
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 7
- ↑ Quidditch Through the Ages: Foreword