Hollywood makes firearm blunders in their films frequently as most gun enthusiasts know, but did you realize that producers also make numismatic mistakes. I was watching the Sharon Stone film The Quick and the Dead the other night and the producer made a blunder that I caught. There is a scene in the film where Sharon Stone orders a glass of whiskey in the bar and puts a quarter down on the bar as she picks up her glass. The thing that grabbed my attention is that the quarter in question was a Standing Liberty and that film is supposed to be set in the old west. I suppose moviegoers unfamiliar with older coins wouldn't catch something as insignificant as that so the producers don't put much thought into it. Are there any other members here that have caught a coin blooper in a movie?
I catch musical bloopers all the time. It frustrates me that Hollywood doesn't even make the attempt to make it look like someone is actually playing a musical instrument. Some of them are quite laughable even.
I remember an episode of "Little House on the Prairie" when the Ingalls family went to another town (I forget the name of it), anyway, they found a boy (Albert) that would eventually move back to Walnut Grove with them. Laura Ingalls and Albert were standing in front of a store and dropped a dime between the cracks of the wooden sidewalk. The dime happened to be a Barber dime but I couldnt make out a date. The "Little House" series is supposed to be set in the 1870s, Barber dimes werent minted until 1892. I guess you know what I'm talking about if you've ever seen the show. My wife is a "Little House" nut.
Good observation. I actually remember that episode. It's the one where they end up using Laura's chewing gum to retrieve Albert's dime. HAHA I'm showing my age.
Thats right! You remember it also. I can recall where they did that now with the chewing gum. I actually forgot about that part.
Most people are numismatically challenged so yes, as a movie prop, anything older than a Roosevelt dime and they can probably feel confident that their audience will buy into it.:eating:
Yes, I believe gopher is right. The greatest portion of viewers watching that show didnt know any better. Im sure the producers figured that no one would ever catch it.
I recently saw the 1947 film "The Foxes of Harrow" on TV. Rex Harrison played an illegitimate son of a wealthy European family who arrives in New Orleans in 1831 "with only a double eagle in my pocket". Where did he get the double eagle before any were made in the US (in 1850)?
We have all the seasons of LH (why i don't know) and I remember the episode but I didn't pay attention to the coin.
I was watching the greatest game ever played and they actually used the right coin at the very beginning when the man flips a States of Jersey 1/12 shilling 1877 to the boy. My wife rolled her eyes as I paused the movie an wound it to the point where I could see most of the design then looked it up in my Krause
In the ESPN movie "3" about the life of racecar driver Dale Earnhardt, there is a scene where Earnhardt places a stack of $20 bills on the counter after winning a local race that took place during the 1970s. All of the $20s were of the new design that didn't begin until 1996.
