Bank of Gringotts notes push legal limits

Harry Potter and Bank of Gringotts Banknote Series

Two years ago, after the 4th edition of Unusual World Coins was released (after a 12-year break), there was a bit of inter coin – paper money rivalry in the department cubes and the success of the UWC book began to beg the question if I would do a book on Unusual World Bank Notes.

Well, I think that with the abundance of Hell bank Notes, political parody items, as well as the more traditional advertising notes, Base Ball team notes and MPC Fest certificates (which already has a catalog) that such a product could be extensive, but sadly economically unfeasible.

However, with the continual advancement of photo editing programs, and improvements in personal printing, some issues could be made quickly and still be of reasonable quality.

Sometimes, the distribution methods for parody notes are a bit harder to track down both by way of merchandising and production. The group I would like to feature is two series of bank notes produced featuring characters and scenes of the Harry Potter Movie Series.

Gringotts Bank, plays a part in the second book and movie – The Scorers Stone, as the location of where the stone is kept until re-location to Hogwarts school by Hagrid, and the location of the cash supply of gold and silver coin which is Harry Potter’s inheritance, and which he needs to tap into to buy school supplies. It also plays a role in the final book.

The notes are produced in designs, colors and denominations similar to Bank of England notes. You can divide them into a student set and a teacher set. I’ll list out the face and back designs.

Featured on the student set are:

Drago Malfoy, 1 Galleon (Lucius Malfoy on back)

Hermione Granger, 5 Galleons (Hermione mixing Polyjuce Potion)

Ron Weasley, 10 Galleons (Hogwarts Express)

Harry Potter, 20 Galleons (Harry Potter and the flying car)

Harry Potter, Hermonie and Ron with house elf (Harry and the serpent)

From the Teacher set, we have represented:

Gilderoy Lockhart, 1 galleon (Sybil Trelawney on back)

Severus Snape, 5 galleons (Snape and Hedwig)

Rubeus Hagrid, 10 Galleons (Hagrid and fang and stone house)

Albus Dumbledore, 20 Galleons (Basilisk statue and Professor Quirrell)

Minerva McGonagall, 50 Galleons (Owl)

The one pound notes have a helpful conversion table from Galleons to sickles(17 to the galleon) and then knutes (29 to the sickle). The coins have been available for some time. They were struck and made available by the Pobjoy mint.

These bank notes have not been advertised widely in print or on the net, and certainly there would be a bunch of legal action against their distribution as they are unofficial merchandise.

George