Coins in Movies - Greta Garbo on a coin in Queen Christina (1933)

In the 1933 MGM film "Queen Christina", Swedish actress Greta Garbo plays the medieval Swedish queen, who, among other things, liked to dress as a man.

Early in the film, Christina is mistaken for a boy and given a Swedish daler (taler) as a "tip", the coin is then shown:


Queen Christina daler prop coin

The coin is not a generic prop coin but was made specifically for the film. It has Greta Garbo facing right surrounded by a nearly authentic Christina legend.

The real Queen Cristina had a much different appearance on coins and she was usually faced forward.

The coin's legend is:
CHRISTINA DG SVECO GOT WAN Q DE RE ET PR HAE
which expands to the queen's Latin title:
Christina Dei Gratia Sueciae Gothorum Vandalorum que Designata Regina et Principissa Haereditaria
or:
"Christina, by the Grace of God, Designated Queen of Sweden, Goths, Vandals, and Hereditary Prince"

In the film, Christina falls in love with the Spanish ambassador and abdicates her throne to be with him.

The real Queen Christina did not abdicate due to love. She converted to Roman Catholic religion and could not rule the Lutheran Sweden.

She moved to Rome and took with her a coin collection of 15,000 coins. She bought more coins from numismatists of the time. She willed them to an Italian family who later sold them to the Pope for the Vatican's coin collection.

Christina would stamp a crowned 'C' on her coins, making them easy to identify.

 

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A similar Greta Garbo prop coin without the Swedish legend appears in the 1945 MGM film "Yolanda and the Thief".


Yolanda and the Thief (1945) Greta Garbo prop coin