Six magpies are traditionally linked with “gold” in the old counting rhyme.

How many magpies need to be seen for gold?

In traditional magpie-counting superstition, people recite a rhyme where each number of magpies has a different meaning. One widely used modern version goes:

  • One for sorrow
  • Two for joy
  • Three for a girl
  • Four for a boy
  • Five for silver
  • Six for gold
  • Seven for a secret never to be told

So if you’re asking “how many magpies need to be seen for gold,” the answer in this rhyme is six.

A bit of background

The magpie rhyme is an old piece of British and European folklore where people treat the number of magpies they see as omens of luck, love, or fortune. Over the centuries, the lines have had small variations, but the link of five with silver and six with gold is very common in modern versions.

People today still talk about it in casual chat and forums, often half- jokingly, when they spot a single magpie and mutter about “one for sorrow” or get excited when they see a larger group.

Mini story illustration

Imagine you’re walking to work on a grey February morning and you spot a flurry of magpies on a field hedge. You start counting almost automatically:

One, two, three… five… six.

You pause, remembering the words your grandparents used to say—“five for silver, six for gold”—and, for a moment, the day feels a little luckier, as if some small, unexpected windfall might be waiting around the corner. The superstition doesn’t change reality, but it gives the encounter a tiny bit of narrative sparkle. TL;DR: In the well-known magpie rhyme, you need to see six magpies for “gold.”

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.