Coin Quiz from The Bishop's Wife, a coin movie for Christmas

How about a whole movie based on an ancient coin? Not a real coin, but sounds like an interesting coin movie nontheless.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I am not sure but, just to clarify, wasn't it Dudley who stated the history of the coin, not the professor?
(Not a coin freak but, rather, a film freak!!! HA!)

 

I watched this film recently and saw the Roman coin in it.


Cary Grant holding the coin

Early in the film Julia, the bishop's wife (Loretta Young), wearing gloves, holds the coin:


The Roman coin obverse and reverse

The round marks on the images are from the black gloves that Julia (Loretta Young) is wearing.

The coin appears to be a sestertius of the Roman Emperor Trajan who ruled from AD 98 to 117 and appears similar to a coin shown in Roman Imperial Coins as Trajan RIC 503 with Pax on the reverse.

http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/trajan/t.html
Note the captive's head below Pax's foot.

Later the angel Dudley (Cary Grant) explains the coin to Professor Wutheridge (Monty Woolley)

This is one of the rarest of all antiquities.
Only 100 of these coins were minted by Julius Caesar 2,000 years ago.
That was when Cleopatra visited Rome.
Presumably, these coins were used to pay her hotel bill.
Nobody knew about it except Caesar's wife.
She did not share her husband's admiration for Cleopatra.
So she had these coins destroyed. Melted into ornaments for herself.
This is the one she missed.
It's an unwritten chapter in history, and you, professor, will write it.
​

 

It appears to be a denarius, possibly RIC 190