I visited the Disney Family Museum at the Presidio of San Francisco recently. This museum is dedicated to the life of film animator and producer Walt Disney (1901-1966). The museum has exhibits on his early life, service in France, animation work, Mickey Mouse, World War II company work, and the development of the Disneyland theme park. The museum had a couple of coin related items. Walt Disney wanted to get into World War I but was too young for the Army. He joined the Red Cross ambulance service and arrived in France after the war ended. He accumulated a collection of small items, mostly coins, which he carried in a cloth bag. The bag was still in his possession when he died in 1966. Disney collection of small items The coins include ones from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Tunisia, US Philippines, French Indo-China, along with uniform buttons and German Notgeld tokens. Walt Disney received a lot of awards for his cartoons and films, here is one medal from the Venice Film Festival for a cartoon: Venice International Film Festival "Golden Lion" awarded in 1936 for Who Killed Cck Robin? This is a large gold medal around 3" (7.5cm) in diameter. The Disney company produced the feature film "Treasure Island" in 1950. It was filmed in Great Britain in cooperation with a British film company. The story was about pirates and treasure, and "pieces of eight" were mentioned frequently. Somebody gave Walt Disney a real Spanish "piece of eight" silver coin: Spain silver cob 8 reales "piece of eight" 1685
First of all I would like to say that I enjoyed reading this most interesting article. When I was a child I absolutely loved the magic and vibrancy of Walt Disney films, the first one I remember watching was Micky Mouse's merlin. Mr Disney contributed so much to enhance the childhood memories of so many. I remember when I was nine years old one Christmas I was given some Disney balloons which had all the well known figures on them, oh yes, memories are made of this. Getting back to the basics of this article, the bag contained many interesting items and I recognised some English coins.
Another reason for buying a particular coin. Walt Disney had a Spanish Potosi eight reales "cob" dated 1685. Now, thanks to Sedwick Coins of Florida, I have one too. Spanish America silver eight reales "cob" type 1685 Potosí (Charles II) Silver, 39mm x 40mm, 25.11gm Obverse: Pillars of Hercules above waves POTOSI ANO 1685 EL PERV (missing) P 8 VR (mintmark, denomination, assayer) PLV SVL TRA (Plus Ultra or "More Beyond") VR 85 P (assayer, date, mintmark) Reverse: Jerusalem cross, castle upper left and lower right, lion upper right and lower left CAROLVS II DG HISPANIAR (missing) Denomination '8' at top, mintmark 'P' at left, assayer 'VR' at right, and date '85' at bottom
Thanks for the write up, very fun read. Thanks to Dan Carr, I have a couple cobs. May not be old (though they look it ) but they're very cool looking.