Coins in Movies - Coin portrait identifies French king Louis XVI in "Marie Antoinette" (1938)

The 1938 MGM film "Marie Antoinette" is loosely based on the life of 18th century French queen.

Actress Norma Shearer plays Marie Antoinette and Robert Morley plays her husband, the Dauphin (crown prince) of France and later King Louis XVI.

Most of the events in the film take place after the start of the French Revolution in 1789.

Revolutionary soldiers use a gold coin with the king's portrait to identify and arrest him.

Marie Antoinette was born in Austria in 1755, married in 1770 at the age of fourteen, and became queen of France in 1774 at the death of her father-in-law, King Louis XV.

During the revolution, the king, queen, and their two children flee France for Austria in a coach.

The are stopped by revolutionary soldiers and are charged a 20 franc "tax".

Louis gives the soldiers a gold coin and they are allowed to pass.


The coin with the king's portrait and Robert Morley as the king

This prop coin with the portrait of actor Robert Morley was specially made for the film.

An actual coin of Louis XVI looks somewhat different.


France Louis d'or of Louis XVI 1786
Gold, 24mm, 7.64gm

The Louis d'or was the general gold coin of the period, it's name meant Louis of Gold.

Later, two officials examine the gold coin and notice that the man in the coach looks like the portrait on the coin.

They send some soldiers ahead to intercept the coach and arrest the family.

The film does not have a happy ending.

 

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My favorite piece of movie money is the $20 bill in the scene from "Paper Moon" where Tatum O'Neal scams a store clerk. It's a genuine $20 from the Farmers National Bank of Great Bend, Kansas. Not super scarce, but not very common either. There is a great close-up that covers almost the whole screen.