Walt Disney's coin collection

[WillieBoyd2]

I visited the Disney Family Museum at the Presidio of San Francisco recently.

This museum is dedicated to the life of film animator and producer Walt Disney (1901-1966).

 

The museum has exhibits on his early life, service in France, animation work, Mickey Mouse,

World War II company work, and the development of the Disneyland theme park.

 

The museum had a couple of coin related items.

 

Walt Disney wanted to get into World War I but was too young for the Army.

He joined the Red Cross ambulance service and arrived in France after the war ended.

He accumulated a collection of small items, mostly coins, which he carried in a cloth bag.

The bag was still in his possession when he died in 1966.

 

Disney collection of small items

 

The coins include ones from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Tunisia,

US Philippines, French Indo-China, along with uniform buttons and German Notgeld tokens.

 

Walt Disney received a lot of awards for his cartoons and films, here is one medal from the

Venice Film Festival for a cartoon:

 

Venice International Film Festival "Golden Lion" awarded in 1936 for Who Killed Cck Robin?

This is a large gold medal around 3" (7.5cm) in diameter.

 

The Disney company produced the feature film "Treasure Island" in 1950.

It was filmed in Great Britain in cooperation with a British film company.

The story was about pirates and treasure, and "pieces of eight" were mentioned frequently.

 

Somebody gave Walt Disney a real Spanish "piece of eight" silver coin:

 

 

Spain silver cob 8 reales "piece of eight" 1685

 

 

[jpcienkus]

Cool post. Sounds like he collected one coin from the countries he was in after arriving overseas.

[RWB]

(A "piece of eight" is an eight escudo gold coin, not eight reales.)

[messydesk]

(A "piece of eight" is an eight escudo gold coin, not eight reales.)

?

 

First I heard of this. Everything I've seen refers to the Spanish dollar (8 reales).

[coinman_23885]

(A "piece of eight" is an eight escudo gold coin, not eight reales.)

?

 

First I heard of this. Everything I've seen refers to the Spanish dollar (8 reales).

 

+1

 

Also, even though I haven't read the Red Book from cover to cover for at least 12 years, I do seem to recall that Kosoff referred to the 8 reales piece as a "piece of eight" as well.

[WillieBoyd2]

Another reason for buying a particular coin.

Walt Disney had a Spanish Potosi eight reales "cob" dated 1685.

Now, thanks to Sedwick Coins of Florida, I have one too.

Spanish America silver eight reales "cob" type 1685 Potosí (Charles II)

Silver, 39mm x 40mm, 25.11gm

Obverse:

Pillars of Hercules above waves

POTOSI ANO 1685 EL PERV (missing)

P 8 VR (mintmark, denomination, assayer)

PLV SVL TRA (Plus Ultra or "More Beyond")

VR 85 P (assayer, date, mintmark)

Reverse:

Jerusalem cross, castle upper left and lower right, lion upper right and lower left

CAROLVS II DG HISPANIAR (missing)

Denomination '8' at top, mintmark 'P' at left, assayer 'VR' at right, and date '85' at bottom

[WoodenJefferson]

On ‎7‎/‎18‎/‎2014 at 5:10 PM, RWB said:

(A "piece of eight" is an eight escudo gold coin, not eight reales.)

http://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume3/march05/iotm.cfm

Colonial Williamsburg web site needs to be notified of this!

 

Nice history lesson about Walt. 

[RWB]

For Walt Disney, like others visiting foreign countries, coins were/are an excellent way of collecting souvenirs of the experience. Some of the finest early US coins came from such visits.

[rlol43]

On 7/18/2014 at 11:38 PM, coinman_23885 said:

 

+1

 

Also, even though I haven't read the Red Book from cover to cover for at least 12 years, I do seem to recall that Kosoff referred to the 8 reales piece as a "piece of eight" as well.

Either of the 8 denomination coins from Mexico could be considered a "piece of 8" The market went on a weight basis so coins would be cut often to pay for what they wanted. Lets say the piece of 8 is a $20 bill, you want something selling for $10 but you only have a $20, so the bill could be cut in half to cover the price. A piece of 8 could be cut into quarters to be used to pay cashiers, as the money went by weight, even though it still had a denomination. And before someone says "well couldnt they just give them a 4 reale coim back?" Yes they could, but this method was still in play at the time.

 

**Side note** I'm into piratey type stuff, and like anyone else, I listen to music. If anyone else is into oldschool sounding metal, check out Alestorm. Alestorm covers old sea shanties and seafaring songs from the old days of tall ships and piracy, their song, "Nancy The Tavern Wench" actually mentions the coin, so I thought it would be fitting to bring them up. Link below!

 

[rlol43]

Disregard spelling errors and run ons! Its 3AM for me and my mind is roaming

[Conder101]

On 7/18/2014 at 11:38 PM, coinman_23885 said:

Also, even though I haven't read the Red Book from cover to cover for at least 12 years, I do seem to recall that Kosoff referred to the 8 reales piece as a "piece of eight" as well.

That's OK they also refer to the gold coin of 8 escudos as a doubloon.  The true doubloon was the 2 escudos, a coin worth $4 not $16.  The 8 Escudo was a quadruple doubloon, but I'm not sure if it was ever actually referred to by that name.