I am putting together a list of episodes of the 1959-1963 CBS Televsion show "Dennis the Menace" which feature coin or numismatic related topics. The show was about a mischevious small boy Dennis and his grumpy neighbor Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson had a number of hobbies and coin collecting was one of them. This show has been mentioned on this forum before, usually in replies to another post. I have found four episodes so far which featured coins or coin topics. "Dennis and the Rare Coin" (Season 1, Episode 15, first shown January 17, 1960) Mr. Wilson pays $250.00 for a rare gold coin from a con artist that turns out to be a fake coin. The good news is that the coin gives Mr. Wilson a free wish when Dennis throws the coin in the fountain in the park, Mr. Wilson wishes that Dennis would go on vacation for a week and his wish comes true in the end when he learns that Dennis is going to his Grandpa's for a week. "Dennis' Paper Drive" (Season 1, Episode 24, first shown April 10, 1960) Dennis and a bunch of other town boys are collecting papers for a charity and the prize for the boy who collects the most papers is a rare silver dollar that is worth $600. When Mr. Wilson gets word of that he is determined to make sure that Dennis wins the prize so that he can get the silver dollar. "The Lucky Piece" (Season 3, Episode 11, first shown December 7, 1961) Mr Wilson gives Dennis a coin with Good Luck written on it for mowing his lawn. Dennis thinks it is a lucky coin, and he seems to have a lot of good things happening to him. "A Quiet Evening" (Season 3, Episode 21, first shown February 25, 1962) Mr. Wilson's plans for a quiet evening with his coin collection go awry when he unexpectedly has to babysit Dennis, Margaret, and Seymour. Can anybody add more episodes to this list? I put writeups of the first three above episodes on my website's "Coins on Television" section.
The movie with Christopher Lloyd had a segment on the bad guy (C. Lloyd) stealing Mr. Wilsons' gold coin collection. Not TV though. Sorry if this is spam.....
Notice at the far end of the "box", there is a knob there This isn't a box it is a drawer from a coin cabinet.
Mr. Wilson's coin box is interesting because it has spaces sized to individual coins. Also, the coins indicate that he is a collector of world coins, not just US coins. I wonder if someone's real coin collection was used for the television show.
I see nothing has been added to this thread in a decade. Could you please let me know if you have received any further information about it? As someone who was born in the last year the show aired, and was named Denis (although with one "n", the French way) and more importantly, grew up being called "Dennis the Menace" (for the record, I provided no justification for the name calling) and now photograph coins, I was immediately drawn this.
It might be from one of the episodes that have already been mentioned, but when I was kid I remember that Mr. Wilson had a tray of coins on the edge of a couch. Dennis runs by, knocks it off the couch and all coins spill on the floor. Even then it made me cringe as a young collector.
As I remember it, the coin in question was a 1907 Wire Edge With Periods $10 gold coin. I remember Dennis looking down and seeing it resting on the bottom of the fountain. I don't have one of those coins. It's a 5 figure item these days. This is as close as I can get, the 1907 No Periods variety.
Another episode: Dennis' Penny Collection Mr. Wilson's attempts to keep Dennis interested in something and away from him somehow results in Mr Wilson getting arrested: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1118830/
E-Sylum has a detailed write up of the episodes with screenshots: https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n09a14.html
I remember my older sister calling me a menace while hugging me, thanks for the fond memory. By the way, I was.