Chocolate Frog Card

"Considered by many to be the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of Dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling."

- Albus Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog Card

Chocolate Frog Cards (also known as Famous Witches and Wizards Cards) are trading cards that display pictures of famous wizards and witches and give small amounts of information about them. The Cards are obtained by buying Chocolate Frogs. Every Chocolate Frog container has a random card inside.

Overview
"Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, you know, to collect - famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."

- Ron Weasley, to Harry Potter on the Hogwarts Express

Students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry often collect and trade the cards. Hannah Abbott and Ernie Macmillan were once found swapping cards in the Great Hall. Harry, Ginny, and Neville were trading them on the Hogwarts Express. Neville Longbottom, however, was not a collector, as when Harry gave him a Chocolate Frog, he gave the card back to Harry. The students once put a notice on the Gryffindor notice-board, in the common room, asking whether anyone wanted certain cards in a trade. There are over 101 known cards in total.

History
Collectible cards featuring famous witches and wizards were first packaged with Chocolate Frogs in November 1926. The Daily Prophet reported on this introduction in its 29 November 1926 issue.

When Albus Dumbledore was being discredited by the Ministry of Magic, he was removed from the Wizengamot and from the International Confederation of Wizards. He told Bill Weasley that he didn't care what they did to him, as long as they didn't take him off Chocolate Frog cards.

At the end of the 1995-1996 school year, Ronald Weasley received a number of Chocolate Frogs from his brothers Fred and George and propped one of Dumbledore against his water jug, suggesting perhaps that either Dumbledore had not been taken off the cards, or if he had been, was swiftly reinstated following the recent revelations regarding Lord Voldemort.

It's probable that Dumbledore's comment was a joke in order to imply that he simply never cared about the Ministry's attempts to discredit him. As plenty of people featured on Chocolate Frog Cards are downright evil, there's no reason to think the Ministry would actually remove him from the Cards, if they even have the authority to do so.

Electronic Arts
The Chocolate Frog Cards make many appearances in the Electronic Arts video game tie-ins for Harry Potter.

Collecting cards has differing effects on Harry depending on the game. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, collecting enough Bronze cards granted Harry increased stamina, while the Silver cards granted access to the Gold Card challenge room where Harry can collect special gold cards.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the cards no longer bestowed bonuses on Harry. Instead, the Folio Magi has been broadened into the Folio Universitas and divided into several groups, including Beasts, Witches, Wizards, Vampires, Dragons, Quiddich players, Goblins, Hags, as well as the four Hogwarts founders.

Other

 * The appearance of Chocolate Frog Cards varies throughout the series. In the films, they are pentagonal and always dark blue or purple, a design also used in most other adaptations, such as the video games and most real-life versions of the cards. On, however, the cards are shaped more like traditional trading cards, and each unique card is a different colour.
 * The first Chocolate Frog card mentioned in the series was Albus Dumbledore's. Harry Potter received it on his first trip to Hogwarts, and it later provided a vital clue as to the identity of Nicolas Flamel and the truth about the Philosopher's Stone. Dumbledore's card also provides a vital clue in the seventh book, when Grindelwald, who was first mentioned in the first book, and his relationship to Dumbledore is explained in detail.
 * Although the images of the people on the cards are usually referred to as "pictures", letting one think they are magical photographs, but the fact that Albus Dumbledore's image wandered off on its own volition in the first book implies the people portrayed in the picture do not merely move on a set pattern but have a degree of intelligence, making the card pictures more similar to magical paintings than to magical photographs.
 * During his first trip to Hogwarts, Ron Weasley tells Harry Potter the only cards he does not have are Cornelius Agrippa's and Ptolemy's.Screenshot 756.png
 * J. K. Rowling wrote the original 101 Bronze, Silver, and Gold Famous Witches And Wizards Cards herself for EA Games, and as such, they can be considered first-tier canon and shed a significant amount of light on the history of the wizarding world. Having said that, a few elements remain contradictory, notably Adalbert Waffling's listed 1899 birthdate, which was overridden in by his already-established notoriety and correspondence with the student-age Dumbledore in the 1890s.
 * 101 different cards can be collected and examined over the course of the Philosopher's Stone (PS2 edition) and Chamber of Secrets (PC/Gamecube/PS2/Xbox editions) games. It should be noted that the other versions, such as the GBC and GBA versions of PS G,, and the Prisoner of Azkaban game all have altered card sets and/or reduced amount of total cards.
 * In the PS2 version of PS G, the full 101 cards are available to collect and feature their Bronze, Silver, and Gold borders.
 * In the PC version of PS G, there are 25 cards to collect which are taken from the full 101 cards, but feature gold borders and some differing text.
 * In the PS1 version of PS G, there are 18 cards to collect which are taken from the full 101 cards, but all feature gold borders.
 * In the GBC version of PS G there are 101 cards to collect, which feature different and simplified art and are separated into series of Alchemy, Charms, Curses, Protection, Divination, Generalist, Healing, Hogwarts, Musician, Quidditch, and Transfiguration cards.
 * In the GBA version of PS G, there are 16 cards to collect. They all have gold borders, no numbers, and just a name and dates.
 * In the PC, GameCube, & XBox versions of, there are 101 cards to collect, which feature the Bronze, Silver, and Gold borders, although some card text differs slightly between versions.
 * In the PS1 version of, there are 24 cards to collect that derive from the 101 cards, but lack the numbers and some have different coloured borders and slightly altered text.
 * In the GBC version of, there are 101 cards to collect, which feature different and simplified art, a new numbering system, and are separated into series of Alchemy, Charms, Curses, Protection, Divination, Generalist, Healing, Hogwarts, Musician, Quidditch, and Transfiguration cards. You start with a selection of cards based on your choice of a Merlin Deck or Morgan le Fay Deck.
 * In the GBA version of, there are 25 cards to collect that derive from the 101 cards, but all have gold borders.
 * In the PC version of, there are 80 cards to collect and are separated into 15 Famous Wizards, 15 Famous Witches, 5 Quidditch, 5 Famous Vampires, 5 Famous Goblins, 5 Famous Hags, 5 Famous Giants, 5 Dragons, 15 Beasts, and 5 Bonus card series. Most of these feature new text and artwork compared to the original 101 cards, although the text and some art for the Wizards and Witches cards are preserved.
 * The the Xbox and PS2 version of, there are 50 cards to collect in ten sets of 5 cards each: Witches, Wizards, Vampires, Goblins, Hags, Giants, Dragons, Beasts, Classic Beasts, and Quidditch. Most of the text aligns with the PC version, although some of the art differs.
 * In the GBA version of, there are 51 cards to collect and are arranged into 10 Jinx, 10 Defense/Protection, 10 General, 10 Hogwarts/Instruction, 10 Quidditch, and 1 Special card series. While the text largely conforms with the PC version some different cards are taken from the original 101 for this version and feature new art.
 * In the GBA version of, Chocolate Frog Cards are used for playing exploding snap.
 * These cards can be brought through purchase from Fred and George with Bertie Bott's beans, trading doubles with other students, discovering them in chests hidden throughout Hogwarts and other places in the wizarding world (some of which need to be unlocked with varying spells), receiving them as rewards for finding and returning lost property and winning them in games and broom races with other students.
 * In the PS2 version of the first game, multiple copies of each card can be obtained through some luck via trading and from wizard card packs. However, in the second game, the placement/locations of all the cards like with the original PS1 versions tends to be more consistent, as they all are set with the same objectives for receiving them in each playthrough and as well as in the case of Chamber of Secrets, the trading tends to be more specific in terms of which certain NPCs give which cards, and which cards can have two copies to allow trading. Only 100 cards are oddly available in the console version of the third game however, as well as including records of beasts and giants all while removing a few previous cards (and changing some of the artwork).
 * A glitch can occur in the Xbox/Gamecube version of the Chamber of Secrets game in that the player, by re-visiting Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom once per day (as soon as it's been made available after a certain point of the game; and not during the night), can reopen a certain chest (which requires Skurge to unlock) to receive multiple copies of Godric Gryffindor's card, despite the fact that it is not one of the cards programed in the game for trading. This can also apply to the Merwyn the Malicious card, only since it is received from the Library, it can be "cloned" during the day or the night (and for that card, the player must know Incendio first in order to access the room that contains its chest).
 * The GBC and GBA version of Philosopher's Stone video game and the GBA version of Prisoner of Azkaban are the only Harry Potter games so far that have Chocolate Frogs included with the cards as a single item, or to have cards received from a Chocolate Frog in some way.
 * In both the GBC Philosopher's Stone and GBA Prisoner of Azkaban, Chocolate Frogs count as items that give Famous Witches and Wizard Cards if they are selected to be eaten from the inventory, and only in GBA Prisoner of Azkaban do all cards, even if found from chests, have their sprite included with a Chocolate Frog.
 * Both the Chocolate Frog and Wizard Cards share one trait, which is to increase Harry's stamina bar in the console version video games (as well as Ron and Hermione's in Prisoner of Azkaban). However, this differs; Wizard Cards only in the second game and third games boost stamina bars, while only in the GBA version of the second game do Chocolate Frogs do so.
 * J.K. Rowling has stated that as both Albus Dumbledore and Ronald Weasley are on Chocolate frog cards, they both consider it their greatest achievement.SAM 1341.jpg
 * Although modern wizards such as Bertie Bott, Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter appear on cards, as do historical dark wizards such as Herpo the Foul and Merwyn the Malicious, modern dark wizards Gellert Grindelwald and Lord Voldemort do not. In the case of the latter two, it could be that the authors of the cards were aware of how offensive such cards may have been.
 * In Pottermore, users can collect cards throughout each chapter.
 * In the video games, certain combinations of cards are required to cast spells such as the Tempest Jinx.
 * In the video games, these are often stored in various Folios such as the Folio Magi or the Folio Triplicus. The Folio Brevis was also intended as one such Folio, but was cut.
 * In the Chamber of Secrets PC game, once all Silver wizarding cards are collected, then a chamber can be unlocked which allows Harry to collect all of the Gold wizarding cards (one of which is of Harry himself).
 * In all of the games Harry's card is the last to be collected and is treated as a special achievement.
 * The last Gold Wizard Card is Harry's in the PC game, with the special effect of stars coming from his wand tip and fireworks going off behind him.
 * In the PC port of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Harry's card is unlocked after collecting all other Wizard cards in the Folio Universitas. Doing so also unlocks the Bean Bonus Room with an unlimited timer.
 * Prior to the appearance of Kingsley Shacklebolt using his Patronus for communication in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, there was a fan theory that members of the Order of the Phoenix used Chocolate Frog Cards as a secret means of communication. Though incorrect, the theory gained enough popular traction for J. K. Rowling to address it in the Rumours section of her official website. She stated that it was such a great idea that she was of two minds about whether to shoot it down, but noted that any object that could be carried on the person would be vulnerable to loss, destruction, or trickery. Notably, this same sort of issue was a flaw of the fake Galleons used by Dumbledore's Army. As most members did not continue carry the coins after the end of the 1995-1996 school year, only Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood answered the call when the coins were activated prior to the Battle of the Astronomy Tower on 30 June 1997.
 * Cards for the four founders of Hogwarts, and Albus Dumbldore, can be collected in real life by buying Chocolate Frogs from Honeydukes in the Universal Studios's Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Orlando, Florida and Hollywood, California. The characters appear as lenticular 3D images.
 * Other versions of cards can be collected in Chocolate Frog packs sold by Jellybelly, or by Marks & Spencer in the UK.

Appearances

 * PS undefined
 * PS F
 * PS G

Notes and references
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