A fictional system of currency is used by the wizards of the United Kingdom. The currency uses only coins as the units of account. It is based on three types of coin; in order of decreasing value, the gold Galleon, the silver Sickle, and the bronze Knut. Wizarding banks provide money-changing services for those with Muggle currency. The only bank seen in the Harry Potter series is Gringotts, which is located in Diagon Alley in London and has hundreds of vaults. Account-holders may use these vaults to store anything they wish. Hagrid indicates that wizards have "just the one" bank, and considers Gringotts to be the most secure place to store valuable or sensitive items aside from Hogwarts.

Some Gringotts employees are stationed in countries other than England and tasked with recovering treasure for use by the bank. Bill Weasley is introduced as one such employee, working in Egypt as a curse-breaker to extract riches from ancient tombs.

Coins

The Galleon is the largest and most valuable coin in the British wizard currency. It is gold, round and larger than the other coins in use.

Around the rim of the Galleon is inscribed at least one serial number, which identifies the goblin who was responsible for minting the coin. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Hermione enchants fake Galleons to show the time and date of the next Dumbledore's Army meeting instead of the serial number.

As explained in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone there are 17 silver Sickles to a gold Galleon, and 29 bronze Knuts to a Sickle.

According to Pottermore, the wizards never changed their units of measurement (i.e. feet to metres, ounces to grams, pounds to kilograms, etc.) because they can do the calculations with magic, so strange number conversions do not bother them.

Exchange rate

One Knut is                  One Sickle is          One Galleon is         

1 Knut                           29 Knuts                 493 Knuts

0.03448... Sickles         1 Sickle                    17 Sickles

0.002028 Galleons      0.05882 Galleons      1 Galleon

1 UKpapproximatel      y29 UKpapproximately         UK£5.00approximately

1.5 US¢approximately      44 US¢approximately        US$7.50approximately

In a 2001 interview, J. K. Rowling said a Galleon was approximately five pounds (at the time of the interview approximately US$7.50 or €5.50), although "the exchange rate varies."

In the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, it is said that the £174 million raised for charity is equivalent to 34,000,872 Galleons, 14 Sickles, and 7 Knuts (the figure is truncated to "over thirty-four million Galleons" in Quidditch Through the Ages). This means that £5.12 = 1 galleon. However, the book's cover price is £2.50 ($3.99 US), or "14 Sickles and 3 Knuts," which implies either an exchange rate of £3.01 = 1 galleon or a 41% discount to Muggle purchasers.