Skip to main content

What are the costs of books and materials in Harry Potter?


In the first book, Harry sees his Gringotts vault for the first time.


(Quotes thanks to Slytherincess!)



Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.


"All yours," smiled Hagrid.


All Harry's -- it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking. How often had they complained how much Harry cost them to keep? And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to him, buried deep under London.


Hagrid helped Harry pile some of it into a bag. "The gold ones are Galleons," he explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough. Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh."


Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - pages 58-59 - US Hardcover Edition




Jk Rowling posts in the Harry Potter Lexicon



JKR has stated in an interview (Comic Relief 2001) that she estimates the value of one Galleon to be "about five pounds," which works out to around US$9.75 (the exchange rate at the time of the interview was US$7.33). In the introduction to both QA and FB, US$250-million is stated to be the equivelent of 34 million Galleons. That also works out to a value of £5 to the Galleon, at the exchange rate of the time. The price listed on the back of the books, however, is not correct, since US$3.99 would equal less than half a British pound, or 8 sickles and 15 knuts. The book instead incorrectly lists US$3.99 as being equal to 14 sickles and 3 knuts. (Unfortunately, CNN.com uses this incorrect value for their Knuts-to-dollars converter.)


This gives us approximate values as follows:


1 bronze Knut = £0.01 (US about 2 cents)


1 silver Sickle = £0.29 (about US$0.57)


1 Galleon = £5.00 (more or less US$9.75)


These rates vary as the exchange rate fluctuates - see the Wizarding World Currency Converter for the current rate.




Now looking at the quote



Hagrid helped Harry pile some of it into a bag.



and



Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh.



Obviously "some" is unspecified, but presuming the costs of school textbooks...




Typical elementary-school textbooks cost more than $100 each



He would be carrying at least 10 galleons for each school book, and going by the list of books just for his first year,


(Thanks Ibid!)



COURSE BOOKS


All students should have a copy of each of the following:



  • The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

  • A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot


  • Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

  • A Beginners’ Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

  • One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

  • Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

  • The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble


(Harry Potter and Philospher's Stone, Chapter 5)



That's 80 Galleons just for books. This does not include the list of other expenses Harry has for his school years (wand, potion reagents, etc.)



How many Galleons is "some" or is Diagon Alley selling supplies for third world prices?


Sidenote, is this just a case of bad JK maths?



Answer



The old PS2 Pottermore site included a 'moment' where you could take a trip to Flourish and Blotts. Not only could you review the books available in the Wizarding World but, helpfully, they were also priced for sale. As you can see, they were most inexpensive.


enter image description here



A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration (1 Galleon)
Magical Drafts and Potions (2 Galleons)
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi (2 Galleons)
The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 (1 Galleon)

The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection (1 Galleon)
A History of Magic (2 Galleons)
Magical Theory (2 Galleons)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2 Galleons)
Break with a Banshee (5 Galleons)
Gadding with Ghouls (5 Galleons)
Holidays with Hags (5 Galleons)
The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 (1 Galleon)
Travels with Trolls (5 Galleons)
Voyages with Vampires (5 Galleons)

Wanderings with Werewolves (5 Galleons)
Year with the Yeti (5 Galleons)
The Monster Book of Monsters (4 Galleons)
Unfogging the Future (2 Galleons)
Intermediate Transfiguration (2 Galleons)
The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 3 (1 Galleon)



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more