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Coin sighting in old movie

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From time to time there have been discussions here about views of contemporary coins in old movies, and here's the latest one for me.

 

Last night I watched the Harold Lloyd comedy For Heaven's Sake, which was filmed in the summer of 1925 and released the following year. Early in the movie Harold puts a nickel into a countertop slot machine. Though the nickel isn't identifiable, the machine pays out two quarters. These are shown in close-up, tails side up. One is a Barber in AG, and the other is a Type 2 Standing Liberty grading F-VF.

 

Whenever I see old coins in movies, I wonder whether those same coins are still with us. The odds are against it, as the attrition rate of coins was very high during the silver era, but it's fun to speculate that they may have survived in the same or lower grades.

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From time to time there have been discussions here about views of contemporary coins in old movies, and here's the latest one for me.

 

Last night I watched the Harold Lloyd comedy For Heaven's Sake, which was filmed in the summer of 1925 and released the following year. Early in the movie Harold puts a nickel into a countertop slot machine. Though the nickel isn't identifiable, the machine pays out two quarters. These are shown in close-up, tails side up. One is a Barber in AG, and the other is a Type 2 Standing Liberty grading F-VF.

 

Whenever I see old coins in movies, I wonder whether those same coins are still with us. The odds are against it, as the attrition rate of coins was very high during the silver era, but it's fun to speculate that they may have survived in the same or lower grades.

 

One episode of "American Picker" showed them visiting the warehouse of a woman who buys all sorts of stage props from the production companies, and she is regularly visited by those production companies for props for new movies. It's very possible that coins like these are stored away somewhere in a warehouse like that.

 

Chris

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I just watched "Dear John" a few days ago, having heard that coin collecting plays a prominent role in the movie. I'm glad to report... it does! However, the movie is kinda dumb - a chick-flick I guess.

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Funny movie DWLange. The man had a lot of bad luck but enough money to not worry about it. What are the odds of buying a brand new car for $9,000. and getting it shot up by mobsters.....lol

 

I too always pay very close attention when I see coins in older movies as such. Can't say I could grade the coins on there but good eye buddy.

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ATS the other day, there was a thread about the John Wayne movie "Rio Grande," set circa 1880, where the female lead throws some coins on the counter and you can identify them as Peace Dollars and Walking Liberty Halves.

 

Of course, when they made movies back then, nobody had a freeze-frame button other than the film editor.

 

TD

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In an episode of Storage Wars on History channel one of the buyers of abandoned storage units found an aboslutely huge amount of coins, silver coins, mint sets, even a one pound silver bullion coin. I forget the total worth when it was appraised but I believe it was over $14k

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Not a movie but I recently picked the complete TV series Have Gun - Will Travel and there are frequently coins in the episodes including one where Paladin rejects a silver dollar tossed on the bar to him in change because it thud's and he declares it to be a counterfeit.

 

It does have some problems though because when you can see the silver dollars they use clearly enough they are invariably Morgan dollars (always seen from the reverse.) and the show is set in 1875 -1876. there are just a couple episodes that date later than that and only one dated late enough to actually have a chance at haveing a Morgan dollar in use (1882).

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Just thought it was cool, and the kind of thread that would get added consistently if it stuck around. (shrug)

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This makes me think of an old Matlock show. Andy is looking over a burnt house and pulls a 1936 proof quarter and half from the ashes. They didn't actually show a good shot of the coins but I had to watch the rest of the show after seeing that. I'm thinking Andy was a collector in real life.

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a slot machine paying out in Peace Dollars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atmk4Wvgc2A

 

Love it :whee: I feel sorry for Americans you and your plastic credit cards. In Suomi- Finland we have still metal coins and luxurious money spending machines in every market. (Finland is the coin player's paradise)

http://www.suomenpeliautomaattihistoriallinenseura.fi/pics/ray/ray8.jpg

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In Cinderella Man, Jim Braddock is seen counting out SLQs and Buffalo nickels when trying to balance the budget.

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Of course in the film Batman we have two face with the double faced peace dollar .

 

MMMM More altered peace dollars . :baiting:

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Last weekend I was watching some of my favorite baseball movies "The Natural" and "Eight Men Out". There's a scene when Max (the bookie) tries to guess how much money Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) has in his pocket. He pulls out some Funny Backs and then does some "magic" by pulling some silver dollars from his lady-friend's ear. You couldn't see the coins, but I'm assuming they were Peace dollars.

In "Eight Men Out", very early in the movie a man is paying admission into the ballpark and it looks like he uses a large red seal $2 note (not 100% sure)

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I just watched "Dear John" a few days ago, having heard that coin collecting plays a prominent role in the movie. I'm glad to report... it does! However, the movie is kinda dumb - a chick-flick I guess.

 

Chick flick - negative

Amanda Seyfried - positive

Coins - positive

 

Two out of three is good enough for me.

 

In the movie "Drag Me To Hell", which is both very scary and funny at the same time, a Standing Liberty Quarter plays a very prominent role.

 

The ending is pretty good too. :grin:

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In Scarface (1932) George Raft is seen flipping a silver dollar into the air and catching it in his hand without looking at what he's doing. Hey, I notice these things. :grin:

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Adam sandler was on Tv last night with the film Bedtime stories . In it he asks for Abe and then a cent appears on the ground in front of him .

 

I would of asked for a beer :)

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Not an old movie, but interesting. In "8 Mile" with Eminem and Mekhi Phifer. Mekhi as the rap battle host, flips a large silver dollar to determine choice for who goes first. Cannot see it clearly, but I think it is a Morgan

 

Yep, probably not many rappin' coin collectors here, but interesting that the producers choose an iconic coin that most would not think would be associated with urban rappers.

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