Old Coins Famous Apearances in Movies

It was an episode of Bones. Day late and a dollar short - did not see that second post.

 

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One episode of Law & Order concerned the murder of a wealthy coin collector who had one of those large walk in safes hidden behind wood paneling in his study.
Executive privilege (was that the name?) with Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman as the US president
Had a scene where Clint is burglarizing the home of E.G Marshall who plays a rich coin collector also with a walk-in safe full of coins & jewelry

 

Oh yeah, How could I forget? What about Mr Willsons coin collection in "Dennis the Menance" I'm not sure what they were but I think they were gold? I got it on tape somewhere, I'll have to check it out soon. I can't help but laugh at the scene with the flying flaming marshmallow! Poor Mr. Willson.

Mattman

 

wooden nickel

Not really a coin, but I was watching Men in black II and noticed when they were talking with some little aliens in the train locker, there was a wooden nickel on the aliens footpath.

 

The New King Kong Movie. ( Well not new anymore) When the girl tries to steal the apple and gets caught. The man walks up and says, lady I think you dropped this. THIS being a buffalo nickel...

 

Actually, that was a brilliant uncirculated Peace dollar, not a CC Morgan.

 

Here is a quiz I did one time at my local coin club meeting:

1. In an episode of the TV show “The Streets of San Francisco”, a coin dealer substitutes fake coins for the real coins in the collection of a wealthy gentleman. The dealer murders the collector, but Karl Malden and Michael Douglas catch the crooked dealer after learning about counterfeit coins. What coins were in the collection ?
Business-strike Morgan dollars
Business-strike Liberty $20
Business-strike St. Gaudens $20
Proof Morgan dollars
Proof Liberty $20
Proof St. Gaudens $20

2. In an episode of the TV show “Hawaii 5-0”, a thief substitutes a fake for a real coin at a coin show. The switch is detected before the thief can get out of the room, and everyone leaving is searched. So he deposits the rare coin in the coin slot of a newspaper machine. What coin was it ?
1793 Chain cent
1894-S Barber dime
1907 High-Relief St. Gaudens $20
1913 Liberty Head nickel
1804 Bust dollar
1933 St. Gaudens $20

3. In a 1964 episode of “The Lucy Show”, Lucy decides to try making money by looking for rare pennies. So she gets some rolls at the bank. She finds one, but ends up losing it before she can sell it.
What coin was it ?
1864-L Indian Head cent
1914-D Lincoln cent
1943 copper Lincoln cent
1877 Indian Head cent
1914-S Lincoln cent
1955 doubled die Lincoln cent

4. In the Clint Eastwood movie “The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly”, canvas bags are dug up from a Civil War grave by Tuco (the “Bad”) while Blondie (the “Good”) watches. Tuco slices a bag open by hitting it with the edge of his shovel. What was in the bag ?
Civil War tokens
Confederate currency
Seated Liberty silver dollars
1861-O Confederate half dollars
1861 US Demand Notes
Liberty Head gold $20

5. In the recent remake of the movie “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory”, Grandpa gives the boy a coin to buy a chocolate bar. What coin was it ?
Braided Hair large cent
Winged Head (“Mercury”) dime
Walking Liberty half dollar
Indian Head Bison nickel
Standing Liberty quarter
Peace silver dollar

6. In the movie “Friday Night Lights”, a coin toss decides which football team goes to the playoffs.
What coin was it ?
Franklin half dollar
Morgan silver dollar
Eisenhower dollar
Kennedy half dollar
Peace silver dollar
Brooker T Washington half dollar

7. In an episode of the TV show “Wild, Wild West”, circus performers steal from the Carson City Mint.
What did they steal ?
Seated Liberty 20-cent pieces
gold coins
coinage dies
Morgan silver dollars
gold bars
currency printing plates

8. In the movie “Titanic”, the heroine pays an artist for a portrait.
What coin was used for payment ?
Liberty Head “V” nickel
Barber dime
Barber half dollar
Indian Head Bison nickel
Barber quarter
Morgan silver dollar

Tie Breaker (closest guess wins):
An ancient magic coin is the main prop of the movie “Zotz”. Anyone holding the coin can point at an object and say “Zotz!”, and that object is destroyed. In what year was the movie released ?

 

Oops. Sorry my mistake. Been awile since I've seen the movie. Thought it was a Morgan Dollar, but come to think of it, it was a peace dollar. (still, he would've probably gotten more than a dollar from a dealer lol) Thanks.

Phoenix

 

Not a movie, but someone tell me that I didn't just dream this up... wasn't there an episode of the "Beverly Hillbillies" involving an 1894-S dime given to one of the Clampetts, and they went and spent it?

 

I can't remember the exact coins but in the Christopher Reeves/Jane Seymour movie "Somewhere in Time" he is preparing to travel back in time to about 1910 and buys an old timey suit and obtains some currency from that era.I believe they were all Barber coins but maybe someone can check it out.Interestingly enough,the reason he gets unexpectedly jolted back to the present is that he had unknowingly pocketed a modern Lincoln cent and when he pulls it out of his pocket,all heck breaks loose.

 

In a 1955 episode of Alfred Hitchcok Presents Peter Lawford flips a Morgan dollar to choose a fatally wrong course of action!

 

In one of the really old orignal episodes of Kung fu, Quai Chain Cain the Shaolin Monk, threw a handfull of Silver dollars (or some large coin) one at a time (like Shurikens) at several guards, up in a guard tower...

The coins struck them in the side of the head, maybe the temple, knocking them off the tower....

Not sure what made me think of this, but I came up with it about 2:30 this morning while driving out to a remote site to work on some Customer Network Gear....

 

That was just on recently on a station that plays all the oldies. That one really gave me a laugh. Paul Drake was standing on a corner fliping a coin that was supposed to be worth thousands. I think it was some kind of half dollar. Later he accidently gave it to a cigarett lady but she gave it back. Everyone on that program handled every rare coin with their bare hands. The best part was at the end when Perry Mason asked that that coin be marked as evidense and they showed the Balliff marking the bare coin with something. During that show they also showed other rare coins being handled by everyone.
As to the 1943 copper I stand corrected. That was on bones and there also everyone handled the coin with their bare hands.
And as to the statement that there is no US Penny, right now on TV is a movie from 1941 with Cary Grant called Penny Serenade. Then there is that song called Pennies From Heaven. And of course about 50 million kids call that Copper cent a Penny. Majority rules. At one time Ain't was not excepted and now it's in the dictionary.

 

the indian penny in "ghost"

I said I was not sure if they actually show the indian head penny! Yes they do!! Sam says "look! an indian head penny!" then he opens the jar, and theres a close-up camera-shot of the penny in his hand. Its a cool scene. They buy one of those loft-apartments, that used to be a big warehouse sized sweatshop. They knock down a wall, and theres a sweatshop that hadnt been touched in 80 years. I wonder how many of those old industrial warehouse lofts are left.

 

This past week on tv, The Unit had a story line about one of the wives finding a 1921 double D Morgan under the flash of an airborne trooper's hat. Someone offered her 85K for it but ended up switchign it out for a slug.

 

Carnivale

Hello - Haven't posted before, so hello there.

I had to jump in on this; I recently watched both seasons of the HBO show 'Carnivale'. It takes place during the depression and I had fun pausing the episodes to check if their coin props were chronologically accurate. There are a couple of coin cameos where you can see the type and whatnot:

- In "Babylon," someone throws a Morgan Dollar into Dora Mae's grave.
- Can't remember the episode, but Samson digs around in his box for some cash to give to one of the roustabouts and you can spot some Standing Liberty Quarters.
- In the episode in which the Oakies register to vote, they are bribed with shiny "Mercury" Dimes.
- There's also an odd scene in one the first episodes where a churchgoer vomits silver dollars all over the preacher's carpet, but you can't get a clear view of their type. Probably Morgans again.

Those are the ones I remember. Good thread. Great forum. Thanks!

 

Bonanza was supposed to set around/ slightly before Civil War, so Morgans shouldn't have existed.

 

Maybe dcarr would know this but in the opening credits of Clint Eastwoods "For a fistful of dollars" were those Morgans floating across the screen. Been a long time since I saw the flick.

 

Just saw "300," great scene where one of the Spartan senators is proven to be a traitor when he drops gold Persian coins with the face of Xerxes on them (right after being stabbed by Leonidas' wife). Not sure if the prop coins were based on an actual historical design or not... maybe someone who saw the movie and also knows about ancient Persian coins could tell us?

 

I was sure Bonanza was set in the 1880's-1890's but after researching it,you're right.It was set in the 1860's shortly after the Civil War since many episodes feature soldiers who had fought in the war but no mention of it being ongoing that I can recall.
http://www.tv.com/bonanza/show/228/summary.html