I was looking for information on another topic when I saw this little item: In other news it was observed that a recent Sam Spade radio mystery centered around an 1841 quarter eagle, resulting in many telephone calls to he Numismatic Gallery, for the coin in question lad been sold by them earlier. (From Abe Kosoff, Dean of Numismatics, by Q. David Bowers) http://www.pcgs.com/books/abekosoff Abe Kosoff's Numismatic Gallery was a rare coin dealership located first in New York City and later in Beverly Hills, California. Over the years he handled the sale of major coin rarities. "The Adventures of Sam Spade" was a detective radio show starring Howard Duff in the title role along with Lurene Tuttle as his secretary Effie. The show ran from 1946 to 1951. It was based on the San Francisco private detective character created by Dashiell Hammett in the book and movie The Maltese Falcon. The Maltese Falcon from the 1941 film Fortunately, many of these old radio programs were copied by the US Armed Forces radio network for broadcast to soldiers stationed in Europe, and copies of this episode can be found readily. The episode with the coin, "The Quarter-Eagle Caper", was broadcast on November 28, 1948. Although listed as a suspense program, the episode has a lot of comedy in it. The plot features a numismatic item, but one should not expect numismatic (or other) accuracy. Julius Eagle, the "Gumball King", asks Sam to catch the vandals that have been smashing his vending machines. These vending machines would dispense a "gumball" candy for a penny. Effie tells Sam that she looks through pennies, has already filled a Lincoln cent card, and is working on Indian Head cents. She explains that the mint marks are 'S' for San Francisco, 'D' for Denver, and no mark for Washington DC. Sam deduces where the thieves will go next, and while watching a machine, he sees Thelma, a "redhead", smash a machine with a hatchet. He approaches her and she first throws the hatchet at him, then tells him a wild story about looking for a pearl in the machines. He turns her over to a policeman he knows. Sam goes to Julius' house and finds his body sprawled on a floor covered with pennies. He also finds a notebook with the words "Spade" and "Quarter Eagle". Sam wonders if it is a wrestling hold like a "half nelson". He visits a newspaper office and places an advertisement asking anyone interested in a "quarter eagle" to call him. A man telephones Sam, and asks him if he is a numismatist. Sam goes to meet the man, finds several men, including a gentleman with a British accent who tells him what they are looking for, an 1841 $2-1/2 gold coin. Supposedly only two of the coins were made and then the die broke, but that a third coin was stuck in the die and later found by Thelma's grandmother. One of the men was carrying the coin, saw that he was being followed, went into a bowling alley, and deposited the coin in a vending machine intending to return for it later. The gentleman offers Sam a $10,000 reward for the coin and Sam deduces that he plans to collect money from the owners of the other two coins for keeping his coin a secret, knowing that the find of a third coin will reduce the value of the other two. After a fight, Sam calls the police and turns the men in. Julius' assistant allows Sam and Effie to search all of the pennies collected by the machines, Effie finds an "Indian Head penny", but notices that it reads "two and one half dollars". She doesn't want it and hands it to Sam. One wonders if publicity from Abe Kosoff's sale of an 1841 quarter eagle inspired the writers of the Sam Spade episode, which then resulted in the phone calls to Kosoff's firm.
They used the same hiding technique for the 1913 V nickel in the Hawaii 5-0 episode The $100,000 nickel. I have a collection of over 6,000 old radio programs from the 30's to the 60's but I can't recall if any of them are numismatic based.
One Sirius Radio channel regularly broadcasts old radio shows from the 30's, 40's and 50's, including the Sam Spade series. Fun listening!
