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The Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts are described as the currency of wizards. I don't remember seeing anything about any other currency used by wizards. Is there such currency? Are Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts universal, or do wizards outside of Britain/Commonwealth/English speaking world use different currency?

Dacio
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vsz
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3 Answers3

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There is almost certainly some kind of different currencies, though there's not enough canon info to know if they are some rare outlier country's coin, or every country has it own coins. From Goblet of Fire, Chapter 7 - BAGMAN AND CROUCH

"You foreign?" said Mr. Roberts as Mr. Weasley returned with the correct notes. "Foreign?" repeated Mr. Weasley, puzzled.
"You're not the first one who's had trouble with money," said Mr. Roberts, scrutinizing Mr.
Weasley closely. "I had two try and pay me with great gold coins the size of hubcaps ten minutes ago."

  • Neither Galleons, Sickles, or Knuts are even remotely close to the size of hubcaps

  • On the other hand, Galleons aren't very much bigger than muggle money, so Mr Roberts wouldn't be calling them "great gold coins size of hubcaps" if they were simply Galleons.

    • British 2 pound coin is 1.12"

    • Wikia says Galleons are the size of American Silver Eagles, ~1.6" (mere 50% bigger). No cite, but seems about right given they were carried in kids' pockets.

    • hubcaps are at least 10x the size of a Galleon, 15x size of 2quid (Toyota RAV4's is 16")

Therefore we almost certainly can infer that they were something else (and I know of no Muggle currency of that size).

But there's no additional info on the topic I'm aware of in HP books, interviews or podcasts (however, there's a chance future post 4/2013 data on Pottermore would add some extra details).

NOTE: in the interest of fairness, there exists a legitimate opinion (voiced on both on HP Wikia's talk page and in comments below) that Mr. Roberts was given typical Galleons and merely used "hyberbole" when he compared the slightly-larger Galleon coins to "hubcaps". I personally don't see it as a plausible interpretation (see above), but there's no unambiguous proof it's wrong.

Jon Ericson
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DVK-on-Ahch-To
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    -1 Mr. Roberts was certainly using hyperbole. As such what he said should not "definitely confirm" that they weren't Galleons that he was talking about. – NominSim Apr 04 '13 at 02:48
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    @NominSim - Galleons fit in childs' pockets. Are you seriously going to suggest that you can hyperbolize a coin that's pocketable to "size of hubcaps" which are 10x in size? I added size comparisons to the answer to show just how unlikely he would have been to say that about Galleons – DVK-on-Ahch-To Apr 04 '13 at 03:16
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    @DVK - If 1.6" is accurate, that would make it almost double the size of the 1 pound coin (Which I think was the largest) in circulation at the time. Something twice the size you expect could reasonably be expected to provoke significant hyperbole. – Compro01 Apr 04 '13 at 03:29
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    @Compro01 - Do people routinely use "hubcups" to describe something 60% bigger than 1"? – DVK-on-Ahch-To Apr 04 '13 at 03:30
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    Hyperbole is an exaggeration that is not meant to be taken literally. If I've told you once, I've told you a million times; I am so hungry I could eat a horse; they have tons of money. You can use hyperbole to whatever degree you want to, and I would submit that certainly Mr. Roberts was doing so. If not just because no one in their right mind would turn down people paying for anything as trivial as a camp ground with multiple gold coins the literal size of hubcaps. Those coins would be worth hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars a piece in gold alone. – NominSim Apr 04 '13 at 03:32
  • @Compro01 The £2 coin had been in circulation for about two years by the time Goblet of Fire was released. – Anthony Grist Apr 04 '13 at 08:24
  • @NominSim - I added a disclaimer about hyperble's possibility. Care to reverse your downvote? – DVK-on-Ahch-To Apr 04 '13 at 13:24
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    @AnthonyGrist - The date in the books is not aligned with the books' release dates. GoF is set in 1994-1995. – Compro01 Apr 04 '13 at 14:31
  • According to my research even farming wagons have small hubcaps, still larger then the average monetary coinage but no more than double it looks like. Seeing as the world cup is at a place out in the country this man may be more used to carts than cars, so it seems to me that the coins may be galleons compared to cart hubcaps. I have no sources to reference so make of that what you will. –  Jan 16 '14 at 15:59
  • Indeed -- what we colloquially call "hubcaps" these days are more properly called "wheel disks". A hubcap, when I was a kid, at least, was a much smaller thing, somewhere around 2-3" in diameter, meant to keep grit and grime out of the wheel bearing and axle attachment point. – Stan Rogers Sep 03 '14 at 21:48
  • @StanRogers - HP events take place in the 1990s. At the time, I think hubcups had the later meaning already – DVK-on-Ahch-To Sep 03 '14 at 22:14
  • Depends where you live, I guess. Hubcaps were still hubcaps in the '90s and wheel disks still wheel disks where I came from. – Stan Rogers Sep 03 '14 at 22:20
  • @StanRogers - if you can find a reference that this was indeed the case in UK/Scotland during HP4 years, it would make for a good answer. – DVK-on-Ahch-To Sep 03 '14 at 22:24
  • Now there is a canon about this here – J_rite Jan 18 '18 at 11:49
  • @NominSim : Even if it was a hyperbole, and those coins were not literally the size of hubcaps, this still is a proof of the existence of gold coins other than Galleons. Therefore I preliminarily accept the answer. – vsz Aug 28 '18 at 19:11
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There's a different currency in America at least: the dragot. It's mentioned in this passage on new-Pottermore.

In brief, the catastrophe involved the daughter of President Rappaport’s trusted Keeper of Treasure and Dragots (the Dragot is the American wizarding currency and the Keeper of Dragots, as the title implies, is roughly equivalent to the Secretary of the Treasury).
Rappaport's Law, Wizarding World

As for other countries, there isn't much canon evidence (other than the discussion above about GoF). If the same currency was used throughout Europe, I suspect the coins might have other names in other languages — "galleon", "sickle" and "knut" are very much suited to an anglophone! (Interestingly though, they don't alter the names in the Spanish translation, I've just checked.)

One completely speculative point: Muggle banks make quite a lot of commission on currency exchange — goblins are fairly mercenary, so would probably like to do the same!

BeginTheBeguine
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Definitely Hyperbole. Besides you realy want to base your opinion on somebody who is almost non stop confunded?

Wiki tels us that:

"Gringotts Wizarding Bank is the only bank of the wizarding world"

On the other hand wiki also tels us that:

"Currency in the wizarding Britain consists of three different coins. In decreasing order of value, they are: Galleon, Sickle and Knut."

So it never states what currency is used in other counties. Id like to believe that since Gringots is international it sets the currency meaning Galeons, Sicles and knuts.

agni666
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    Your first paragraph is an answer to what? Who is that "you"? I'm certain I'm not it, because I did not post anything like that in my question. Would you please care to clarify it more, or if not then move some of it as a comment to the other answer. – vsz Apr 05 '13 at 22:26
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    Just as an FYI: Wiki is not canon. It's just a bunch of people editing in whatever they want. Unless a specific info piece in Wiki is explicitly referenced, you can't use it for canon explanation as it's as likely as not was made up by a user to explain something in canon (e.g. creating "narrative" around JKR's facts). – DVK-on-Ahch-To Apr 06 '13 at 15:34