Questions that don't deserve their own thread.

[wolf550e]

Selling magic is definitely illegal and the ministry should come down on anyone doing it like a ton of bricks. The beauty of selling diamonds is that the muggle who buys them doesn't know about magic, so it's legal. If you want to sell healing, you need to sell insurance: bet that a person with final stage cancer lives a year more than the doctors say. Being right once won't prove "magic", but being right often will. So only do it with people as rich as Steve Jobs.

IRL artificial diamonds are cheap and better than natural ones. That is their only flaw and the way they are spotted. Diamonds above a certain size are tested and if they do not have any flaws then they are artificial and (almost) worthless. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html

The problem with galleon to pound exchange rate is this: There is an exchange rate from a galleon to pounds and there is an exchange rate from a galleon as gold to pounds and back to galleons. If these are not synced daily and if the transaction costs are not ridiculous, you can always make money by arbitrage. If the transaction costs are ridiculous, you can fight whatever imposes them (Gringotts' government granted monopoly, etc.) or make a killing on the black market.

[Sesc]

Do we even see anyone exchanging Galleons for pounds, ever? I remember Hermione getting Galleons for her pounds, but the other way round? I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was a one-way thing in Gringotts.

And even with pounds to Galleons: They could simply put up an arbitrary number of how much you can exchange. And that's that. It short-circuits all attempts to short-circuit the economy, because it sets a limit for the influx of Muggle-money, regardless of how it was earned.

[T3t]

You could melt down the galleons and sell the raw gold in the muggle world for quite a bit more than the supposed exchange rate. It would still be worth it even with the limit on muggle-to-wizard currency, because after that point, you could use the extra pounds to buy whatever goods are of similar value in both worlds. Food, presumably, or whatever.

[Saot]

If you accept that it's possible to sell Galleons as gold to muggles, then no sane person would ever exchange any significant amount of Galleons for pounds with the goblins anyway.

The limits on pounds to Galleons would have to be pretty extreme. Something along the lines of that muggleborns can exchange just enough to pay Hogwarts tuition (if there is any) and buy school supplies with no other trade allowed would work, but at that point there isn't any free trade so there isn't really an exchange rate at all. Anything more lenient than that and you have a continual drain of currency out of the economy, as no sensible person would not max out their exchange limit.

[wolf550e]

You can exchange galleons to pounds by buying gold bullion for galleons and selling it for pounds. Or anything else that has value in both worlds (and is not magical).

You don't have to use the bank. People exchange money for goods if they can trust the money and the goods. If it's easy to test that gold (or whatever) is genuine and the money is not counterfeit, trade will occur. Look at all attempts at prohibition. If something has ten times more value on the other side of the Leaky Cauldron then something doesn't add up. Effective control over private trade means a totalitarian regime much more effective than the Orwellian CCTV of IRL UK, and orders of magnitude more competent than we see in canon Wizarding Government. For crying out loud, as far as we know, the person in charge of enforcing trade with muggles complies with the statute is Arthur Weasley.

[The Berkeley Hunt]

Okay, so I've got a question. I found a fic, Yes, I am Harry's Brother that was taken down some time ago. I cant find the original thread, if there was one, so where should I put it?

If you cant remember the fic by title alone, its the one where Voldemort doesnt exactly die after killing Harry's parents, but instead is reconstituted into a Potter body almost identical to Harry. He then claims to be Harry's brother and uses this position to scheme his way to power.

I'm pretty sure this question goes here since its not important enough for its own thread. Anyone care to help?

[Nocturnesthesia]

I've actually given the money issue a lot of thought. They don't use regular gold, they use Goblin made currency, presumably to prevent exactly that (melting down and selling to muggles).

To make serious profit you'd need to get in with foreign governments or organized muggle crime, which without connections and resources to start with, is more or less impossible to do without getting nailed by both sides (unless there is a wizard mafia, which is pretty much what the Malfoys' operation was).

That being off the table to the average wizard, we'll talk small time.
Selling transfigured gems and the like, you're probably more likely to have problems on the muggle side. Even if the wizard in question can blend in properly and doesn't immediately look suspicious, showing up in a muggle pawn shop with a bunch of precious gems will likely end up being told to immediately GTFO at best or ending up in a muggle prison/wizard prison for confunding muggle cops at worst.

That's all without assuming that a muggle jeweller would immediately notice some irregularities when looking at a transfigured item (unless the dodgy wizards were on par with McGonagall or Dumbledore). If you're that good and yet still willing to risk Azkaban for a few galleons, this is a really inefficient way of going about it.

[Rocag]

Question: What did Voldemort look like just before his attack on the Potters? The same as post resurrection or more typically human than that? For the life of me I can't remember if the books say anything about this one way or the other.

[Xandrel]

Question: Is it true, that the information from Chocolate Frog Cards in Harry Potter Video Games,
was declared correct by Rowling?
I mean all those Vampire Cards, Hag Cards etc.

[KHAAAAAAAAAAN!!]

Originally Posted by Rocag

Question: What did Voldemort look like just before his attack on the Potters? The same as post resurrection or more typically human than that? For the life of me I can't remember if the books say anything about this one way or the other.

They don't mention it. Most fics tend to describe him as an aged version of the description given during his meeting with Dumbledore.

[Bill Door]

Originally Posted by Rocag

Question: What did Voldemort look like just before his attack on the Potters? The same as post resurrection or more typically human than that? For the life of me I can't remember if the books say anything about this one way or the other.

Originally Posted by Deathly Hallows

‘Nice costume, Mister!’

He saw the small boy’s smile falter as he ran near enough to see beneath the hood of the cloak, saw the fear cloud his painted face: then the child turned and ran away … beneath the robe he fingered the handle of his wand … one simple movement and the child would never reach his mother … but unnecessary, quite unnecessary …

If one look at his face is enough to scare small children then I'd guess he had his scary face on by this stage.

[Sesc]

I'm pretty sure he looked different before the resurrection, i.e. not as snake-like (the nose, eyes). Not sure where that's mentioned, though -- perhaps in HBP, when Harry watches the memories.

[Bill Door]

It's shown in some of the memories, such as his applying for the DADA job, that he doesn't look the same as post ressurection. However it also shows him getting worse as time goes on. And since none of the memories are close chronologically to the time in question I'd use the quote I posted above as evidence that he looked snakey when he killed the potters.

[willblarg]

Why doesn't Voldemort have his own chocolate frog card? Even Morgana Le Fay got one.

[Shinysavage]

Most of the population are too scared to say his name; they're not going to want him leering out at them when they open their chocolate.

[Menace]

I'd say he probably will at some point in the future, but when the HP series happened people couldn't even say his damn name. Tearing open a chocolate frog and seeing a picture of his face would probably give the elderly and weak of heart a fit.

Edit: Curses, foiled again.

[Bill Door]

Does it ever say that he doesn't? But if that's true then maybe it's too soon after all the shit he did. Or maybe he just didn't do anything to earn one, I think they're meant to be of witches and wizards who did great things, which Voldemort didn't really do.

[Shinysavage]

I think Ollivander would disagree

But no, as far as I recall the only card we see in canon is Dumbledore's. It's never said whether Voldemort has one, but...come on.

[willblarg]

Originally Posted by Shinysavage

Most of the population are too scared to say his name; they're not going to want him leering out at them when they open their chocolate.

But just imagine it, they wake up in the morning with his shiney red eyes staring at them and on the back it can say, 'Lord Voldemort is famous for being a hypocritical soul splitting snake faced spawn of a Muggle and the repeated failure of attempts on Harry Potters life.'

[Bill Door]

Originally Posted by Shinysavage

I think Ollivander would disagree

But no, as far as I recall the only card we see in canon is Dumbledore's. It's never said whether Voldemort has one, but...come on.

Seriously though, can you name one great deed that he did? He killed and tortured lots of people, that's about it.