We all know that Harry Potter, who once lived under the stairs, actually possesses a considerable amount of money. But how rich is he really? A Reddit user tried to calculate this based on a movie scene.
What money do wizards use?
- In the world of Harry Potter, in addition to the currencies we are familiar with, the “Muggle money”, there is “wizard money”. With it, anything magical can be purchased, from Butterbeer to wands.
- Wizard money consists of 3 different coins: the bronze Knut, the silver Sickle, and the gold Galleon.
- Hopefully, all wizards paid attention in their nonexistent math classes. Because the conversion is not as simple as it is for us:
- 29 Knuts = 1 Sickle
- 17 Sickles = 1 Galleon
- 493 Knuts are therefore one Galleon
Here you can see the trailer for the upcoming Harry Potter game “Quidditch Champions”:
A vault full of Galleons
In the books, we often see that Harry is financially far from struggling. The reason for this is his inheritance from his parents. However, how much money he actually possesses is never mentioned.
The best indication we have is a scene from the first film “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”. When Harry goes shopping in Diagon Alley with Hagrid, the two also visit the wizard bank “Gringotts”.
In vault 687, Harry sees for the first time the fortune that his parents left him. Several piles of gold coins, hence Galleons, can be seen.
What does the calculation look like? In a Reddit post, the Harry Potter fan “NeokratosRed” attempted to calculate the number of these gold coins.
He roughly counted the height and depth of the largest pile of gold. For simplicity, considering the shape as a pyramid, it allows calculating the volume.
However, since the image below is cropped, NeokratosRed estimates from another pile of gold in the background that at least 35 additional layers of coins need to be accounted for. However, since it is not clear what shape the pile of coins at the bottom has, he assumes the smallest possibility, a rectangular shape.
Other visible piles in the background are calculated according to the same principle.
In total, this calculation results in a sum of 50,625 Galleons.
Millionaire, or not?
Almost 50,000 may not sound like a lot at first. However, one must consider that a Galleon, when converted, is worth much more than a euro.
Author J.K. Rowling once explained that a Galleon is worth about 5.90 €, even though the exchange rate constantly changes. This also corresponds to the figures found in the later published books “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” as well as “Quidditch Through the Ages”.
According to this conversion, Harry thus possesses a fortune of 298,687.50 €.
Does that make sense? However, many fans criticize the logic behind these figures.
“I love Harry Potter, but JKR did a terrible job with the numbers. Everything from age/time to money or house points. I don’t think there’s a single part of the story where math makes sense,” writes a user on Reddit.
In another Reddit discussion, the user “aubieismyhomie” tries to find a reasonable conversion. To do this, he refers to the prices of some objects that we also know in the Muggle world, such as a bus ticket or a hot chocolate.
This brings him to a value of 23.57 € per Galleon. This would make Harry a millionaire. Because converted, he would then have 1,193,231.25 €.
You are rich, Harry
In conclusion, one must also consider that in addition to the wealth in the vault, Harry also owned other assets, especially the house at “12 Grimmauld Place” later on.
Moreover, NeokratosRed’s calculation is merely a rough estimate that assumes the absolute minimum. In the book, Harry’s vault is filled not only with gold coins but also with silver Sickles and bronze Knuts, which cannot be taken into account in the calculation, as they are not visible in the film.
Overall, it can probably be said that Harry is indeed quite rich, and can indulge in the load of sweets on the Hogwarts Express without hesitation.
Fortunately, Harry had his heart in the right place and didn’t use his money for crooked deeds.
It is much more criminal in GTA Online. But to buy nice things like houses or cars, you need a lot of money. How to get rich the fastest, you can find out here on MeinMMO:
GTA Online Money Making: 13 Ways to Get Rich Quickly in 2023
