FWIW: Potter's Cash (and vault size)

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 161931

Steve wrote:
<snip>
> As a means of guessing Harry's wealth, we can take the 
> scene in which Harry first enters his Vault and use that
> as a model. Though I don't have access to Movie Galleon 
> coins, I used an American quarter, and scaled it up 
> slightly.
> 
> Nine Cubic Feet of coins (3ft x 3ft x 1ft) is 
> approximately 198,288 coins using 5/64 inch as the 
> thickness and 1 inch as the diameter. <snip>


Neri:
The 9 cubic ft heap of gold coins is the part of your calculation that
clashes with my own private image. I somehow pictured the vaults
considerably smaller, not an actual room but a kind of an elevated
crypt in the wall, with a door that doesn't extend all the way down to
ground level. Rather large for a safe, but not enough for several 9
cubic ft heaps. I'm not a native English speaker so maybe I get the
wrong picture here. Probably my image is affected by visits to ancient
burial catacombs, like the one you can see here:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:A-Procession-in-the-Catacomb-of-Callistus.jpg


Note the vaulted holes in the walls. They'd usually be coffin deep or
even less (because ancient sarcophagi only stored the bones after
cremating the dead, so they were typically smaller than a modern coffin). 

Now, canon certainly isn't clear about the size issue. Harry's first
visit reads:  

*************************************************************
SS/PS, Ch. 5:

the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall,
Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees
trembling.
Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out,
and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins.
Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.
*************************************************************

I can't conclude from here if it is an actual room or a hole in the
wall, and what is the size of the "mounds of gold coins". There's also
the visit to the vaults in CoS:

*************************************************************
CoS, Ch. 4:
Harry enjoyed the breakneck journey down to the Weasleys' vault, but
felt dreadful, far worse than he had in Knockturn Alley, when it was
opened. There was a very small pile of silver Sickles inside, and just
one gold Galleon. Mrs. Weasley felt right into the corners before
sweeping the whole lot into her bag. Harry felt even worse when they
reached his vault. He tried to block the contents from view as he
hastily shoved handfuls of coins into a leather bag.
*************************************************************

Again, nothing clear, but the image of Molly feeling into the corners
and Harry trying to block the view of his fortune make me think of a
vaulted hole in the wall, with its floor about waist height, rather
than an actual room.

Another clue: in PoA, when Harry runs away from the Dursleys and
thinks he's an outcast, he seriously considers emptying his vault and
taking the content with him:

*************************************************************
PoA, Ch. 3:
He looked down at his wand, which he was still clutching in his hand.
If he was already expelled (his heart was. now thumping painfully
fast), a bit more magic couldn't hurt. He had the Invisibility Cloak
he had inherited from his father — what if he bewitched the trunk to
make it feather-light, tied it to his broomstick, covered himself in
the cloak, and flew to London? Then he could get the rest of his money
out of his vault and
begin his life as an outcast.
*************************************************************

Now, the boy is obviously in stress and isn't thinking very clearly,
but still, I doubt he'd consider even for one second "getting the rest
of his money out of his vault" if it were several cubic ft in gold,
silver and copper filling a room-size space. 


Neri