Coins in Movies - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) - Prop coin identified

The 1939 film "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" features a prop coin shown mostly from it's side which took some time to identify.

The film is about the appointment of Jefferson Smith, a naive and idealistic young man to the United States Senate by a state governor.

The state's political boss and his gang expect Smith to be their front man but he learns about the crooked deal they are planning and becomes their opponent.


Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Thomas Mitchell

At the beginning of the film, the state's indecisive governor flips a coin to decide whom to appoint. The coin's size is that of a US half-dollar.

The coin is only shown on it's edge and turns out to be a well-known film prop coin from the Los Angeles Rubber Stamp Company, a firm which manufactured, among other things, film prop coins

The coin is positioned in a still shot with little of the face visible, but from the design, it is obviously not a real US coin.



It took some research to identify the coin.

An image manipulation tool was used to rotate the image 180 degrees, extract the image of the coin, and then stretch the coin image horizontally.



The image looked familiar and resembled a certain Los Angeles Rubber Stamp Company token which appears in token catalogs.

The token's obverse style, line count, and line positions match the prop coin in the film,


Los Angeles Rubber Stamp Company motion picture prop coin 50 cents
Copper-nickel, 31mm, 10.38gm
Obverse: LOS ANGELES RUBBER STAMP CO. MFR'S OF / MOVING / PICTURE / MONEY / AND / BADGES
Reverse: RETURNABLE / FOR CREDIT AT LB. RATE / 50¢

The Los Angeles Rubber Stamp Company made film prop coins in sizes to match current US coins, from the one cent to one dollar, and higher gold denominations of 5, 10, and 20 dollars, and they appear in many films.

 

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Another movie prop piece identified, this time from the 2010 film "True Grit".


True Grit (2010) gold piece

The prop piece in the film reads "CARAT 18 1/2 DWT 25 6/10"

It is copied from a Colorado pioneer gold piece made in 1860 by Dr. John D. Parsons, an assayer in that state.

The original unique piece is in the Eli Lilly collection housed at the Smithsonian Museum.

There are copies made of base metal and one of these is probably the source for the prop.

I have added the film to my "Coins in Movies" website.