Nature of Transfiguration/Poor Wizards

[jedi102580]

No: HPFGUIDX 39752

Amy Z wrote:
> (2) The Weasleys and Lupin attest to the fact that there is such a 
> thing as a powerful but poor wizard; one apparently cannot 
> transfigure unlimited quantities of dirt into Galleons or useful 
> food or Floo powder or new robes. 
>   That's the tough one, IMO.  Caius Marcius took a good whack at it 
> (he writes filks! he quotes Shakespeare! he solves major enigmae of
> the wizarding world via conservative political theory!) and his 
> piece is on the Lexicon.

In reading the piece, I was struck by the fact that one thing that 
shows up repeatedly as an item people covet and yet cannot create 
with Transfiguration is a broomstick.  But we know from QTA that 
broomsticks have any number of (possibly?) complicated spells on 
them, particularly including the newest and nicest ones.  We can 
surmise from Hagrid's claim that it is powerful dark magic to alter a 
broomstick that creating one with the magic it should possess could 
be just as complex.

Along those lines, wouldn't it be possible to place some sort of 
magic on wizard coins which served as a counterfeiting check?  Just 
like in the Muggle world, it is possible to create counterfeit bills, 
but there have been many efforts to prevent this from happening, and 
it is such a serious crime, not many people take the effort to try 
and get around all the particulars.

This doesn't help very much in the question of altering low-
quality/old things to nice new ones, but it's quite a likely 
possibility at least regarding actual currency, imo. 

-- 
marilyn