When it comes to the world of Harry Potter, everything seems so magical and superior to muggle life that the fandom would much rather be sorted into a Hogwarts House and play Quidditch than deal with mundane things like traveling via car or airplane. But how many would-be wizards really take the time to consider the wizarding economy, especially the many things about wizarding money that make zero sense?
It's cute to consider paying for a wand with gold coins or riding a roller coaster to access your underground vault beside a grumpy goblin, but in real life, many of the adorable aspects of wizarding money really aren't practical.
Who Pays People?
From the employees aboard the Hogwarts Express to the people who work for the Ministry of Magic to Hogwarts teachers themselves, how do witches and wizards make money in the world of Harry Potter? We never hear about how much Harry's tuition runs at Hogwarts and there's no way it can be free. Harry doesn't have to pay to board the Hogwarts Express, and we don't really hear about taxes being collected.
If these services are all just part of being a wizard, that's nice, but if income is still required, then all wizards with jobs have to be paid by someone.
The Weasley Home And Income
Many a fan has puzzled over this one. You live in a world filled with magic, yet your house looks like a giant chicken coop about to fall over. Why don't the Weasleys just use magic to reinforce their home and make it structurally sound? It makes no sense for them to need currency to fix it when we witness witches and wizards transfigure, charm and otherwise magic just about everything under the sun.
Even taking Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration into account, why not just transfigure shingles from, say, acorns? The law itself seems to be violated with various spells like Aguamenti anyway and it seems like it was merely created as justification for wizarding poverty. And why aren't wizards paid a living wage?
Gold Coins Are Impractical
Why would you carry around heavy coins for all of your shopping needs when you could carry light paper or cotton--or better, to magically display your account balance with the tip of your wand? Do goblins actually transfer a bunch of coins from one vault to another for direct deposits? That seems like it would take a lot of time and energy, especially heaving all of those coins from one vault to another through the tunnel system.
Digital money is one of the many advanced things that muggles seem to have over the wizards. Are wizards not even allowed to shop online? If they can, how do they do it?
Costs Of Things Don't Add Up
If you pay attention to the prices of items in the wizarding world, it becomes clear that the costs of things don't add up rather quickly. While a couple of Sickles for a beverage sounds about right, charging more for textbooks than a wand sure doesn't.
Even if you were purchasing expensive college textbooks, a book for 9 Galleons makes zero sense in a world where something as precious as a wand costs 7 Galleons. Ludo Bagman offers 5 Galleons for a joke wand when a single Galleon is a huge deal to the Weasley family, whose Gringotts vault is all but bereft of them. Just what is the true value of a Galleon with so many inconsistencies?
Monetary Value Is Silly
If you know that it takes 17 Sickles to make a Galleon, 29 Knuts to make a Sickle and 493 Knuts to a Galleon... then you know it makes even less sense for students at Hogwarts to not have a math class since they're going to spend all of their time adding up these ridiculous coins. It makes zero sense to have such random values assigned to the coins, making them even more difficult to use than they are by weight alone.
Even if wizards can count their coins using magic somehow, it still seems ridiculous to make each coin's value something that's difficult to round up, not to mention the headache it would cause for clerks dispensing change back.
There's One Bank
Can you imagine having to zip all the way to England just to go to the bank? Granted, you can use the Floo Network or a Portkey to travel much more quickly, but how inconvenient to not just be able to visit a bank in town.
It seems rather archaic for an institution to not branch out a bit since it was founded in the 1400s, especially given the population booms, wizarding communities around the globe and the evolution of money itself. Why should the only bank be located in England, anyway? And why does it have so many mines to store things in when a simple charm can make a handbag have endless room?
Goblins Run The Bank
While goblins might be great at hoarding money and keeping it safe (except when they're not, as was aptly demonstrated in the final book), they sure hate wizards a lot. Is it really a great idea for them to be in charge of all of the money in the wizarding world if they might decide to switch sides one day?
It also makes no sense for a Polyjuice Potion to not be detected the moment someone walks into Gringotts. While Hermione didn't get away with it as she'd hoped, she came close. Why were there no magic detector spells to protect everyone's accounts?
Muggle Money Is Re-Circulated... How?
Hermione's parents are able to exchange muggle money for wizard money at Gringott's, which seems plausible enough, but then their muggle money is circulated back into the muggle world. How is this done? Do goblins actually use electronic funds transfers or enter the muggle world somehow, or do they send wizards into it? Who do they work with to get the money back into muggle hands?
The rule has always been that electronics can act up around magic, which is silly enough, but if it's true, then how is it transferred? Some fans speculate that it gets passed on to squibs somehow but it's never really explained.
Why Can't Money Just Come From Magic?
In the books, we're never given the full laws of transfiguration, and while it makes sense that one can't make something out of nothing, what would stop someone from transfiguring turnips or charming Cheerios into money? It hardly seems impossible, and while leprechaun gold is known to disappear, surely there are spells that could make money that's been magicked into existence more permanent.
Perhaps there are anti-magicking charms in place to prevent the exchange of false money, but they've never been mentioned before. If we can use a simple marker to test counterfeit money, it would seem as though wizards would have some kind of safeguard in place as well.
How Did Sirius Buy That Firebolt?
Fans constantly wonder how a convicted felon on the run was able to access his Gringott's account and purchase an expensive broom for his godson. Did the goblins just not bat an eye when it came to Sirius wanting to make a purchase, and if so, how did Sirius even get the money out or spend it in the first place?
Also, why not create anything like the Firebolt with magic? From wands to textbooks to really anything necessary, why can't it be made with magic to avoid having to use money altogether? If the ingredients are there, shouldn't it work just as cooking the wizard way does?