We have a TV station here that plays all the old type programs such as Perry Mason. I tape them and watch them when I get time. The one today would have made all coin collectors sick or jsut bust out laughing. The entire story was about a coin dealer trying to sell a coin. The coin in the story was a 1861 Orleans Mint Sitting liberty Confederate half Dollar. Per the story on the show there were only 4 made and this is one of them and the owner was trying to sell it for $50,000. The fact that there was only 4 made is true. Remember that these shows were made in the 1950's. Eveyone involved in the story handled this coin with thier bare hands. The private detective, Paul Drake, actually carried it in his pocket. At a restaurant he accidently paid for a pack of cigaretts with that coin. Luckily the seller gave it back to him thinking it was a fake coin. Later Paul Drake was standing on a corner flipping that coin as if it was a flipping coin. There was naturally a murder in the story and the coin was the reason. During the program Perry Mason interviewed a well known, super duper coin collector that handed him a 1913 Liverty Head Nickel. Also, bare coin, bare hands by both. Other valuable coins during the show were attempted to be stood on the edge because the real ones would stand and counterfeits would fall over. It gets better. During the trial Perry Mason handed the confederate half to the coin expert on the stand and asked him to examine it. Then Perry Mason asked the judge to have it entered as an exhibit of the trial and have the baliff mark it as such. The Balliff took the coin and so marked it for an exhibit. All this again was done with bare hands, bare coins. I couldn't see what the Balliff used to mark the coin but that really got me the most of this whole story. Wonder if he used a metal scribber. I really wonder if whoever wrote that story knew anything about coin collecting at all.
The answer to that is pretty obvious! Was that the episode in which the "expert" made a replica with an off-center, weight so it wouldn't stand on edge?
That's very amusing, Just Carl. I can imagine you cringing as you saw the rare coin being handled, flipped in the air, and used to pay for things. But the show doesn't surprise me. I think a similar drama might be produced today. After all, people outside the hobby know nothing about the importance of condition in valuing a coin. To the layman, a coin seems indestructible--which, essentially, it is. What's the big deal about flipping it in the air? On the other hand, I think a drama involving numismatics that employed an expert adviser would be even more interesting to the general public than the show you described, Just Carl. It could show actors handling the coin with care, wearing white gloves, etc., and I think the public would understand and enjoy the show even more. And, one more thing, let's us coin collectors not feel superior when we view a show such as the one described by Just Carl. A drama about mineral collecting, for example, might find us clueless.
There was another episode on local TV recently where a guy had a "rare coin collection" and kept all of the coins together in a cloth bag. The main story was about a "Malay States Commemorative Medal" and the identity of the man on the medal. (The sea captain did it). The scriptwriters were probably hurrying to meet deadlines.
I really enjoyed watching Perry Mason. It used to be on at lunchtime on TBS. Hobbies are generally treated in a pretty cavalier manner in TV shows and movies, with a minimum of research if any... but at least coins weren't blown up like the trains on The Addams Family! As a model railroader, I'm still asked about that!
AHHH the Adams family. With the distruction of trains that program is not so far fetched as you may think. When we were kids we used to take our Lionel and American Flyer trains outside, run the tracks for hundreds of feet down the sidewalk, put the lead soldiers on the trains and let them rip at full speed. The shoot at them with BB guns, throw firecrackers at them, blow up the tracks with homemade bombs. And ROY, yes that was the one where a counterfeiter made the coins off center so they could not stand on the edge. So many times they took valuable coins and stood them up on the edge to show they were the real ones. Of course they would them fall eventually. However, I found myself constantly saying to the TV set "NO, NO, NO don't touch that coin with your hands" "AHHH! Stop flipping that coin you idiot. It could fall on the ground". Then I called the TV set a lot of nasty names when the Balliff marked the coin for an exhibit of the case. Of course I knew my comments were about 50 years to late but it made me feel good.
