Blatant Numismatic Errors In TV And Movies

The movie "Unouchables"

The scene outside the court room where Frank Nitti empties his pockets for Elliot Ness. Among other coins is a Standing Liberty quarter. Hollywood got that one right.

Jbuck, the book goes into those paradoxes. I don't think it's too strong to say that 11/22/63 is King's best book since The Stand (I personally am not a fan of The Stand, but that makes me pretty much a heretic among King fans and I will say that structurally and thematically, the book is EXCELLENT. I just didn't care for the heavy-handed religious overtones--there's a right way to do a religious allegory and a wrong way to do a religious allegory and IMHO, this was the wrong way). You should read it, you really should.

OH AND WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT MAY I PLEASE RANT FOR A MOMENT ABOUT PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. The cursed treasure in the movie is the "treasure of Cortez himself" and they repeat this, multiple times, ad nauseum. Disney did a phenomenal job with the historical consistency on this movie--I was in a theatre class in high school the year it came out, and I got permission from my teacher to do a research project with friends elsewhere via the Internet (so our research group of three was actually a research group of six and the other three members were in Vancouver, Boston, and Colorado). It was a research project about how you would use historical pieces in a set. Guess what: the details of the first PotC movie--from Elizabeth's dress being "the latest fashion in London" to Jack's manacles to the Royal Navy's blunderbusses to the style of the warming pans used in the Governor's household--all place the story squarely between 1750 and 1780. Not too shabby, all things considered, and even moreso when you consider that it's supposed to be a "fantasy time period" (such that creatures like the Kraken and an Incan curse can actually be real); it also jibes pretty well with the real Golden Age of Piracy having ended about 25 years before, since all through the second and third movies there are near-constant references to "the age of pirates coming to an end". All told, it's fantastic, a wonderful piece of historic workmanship EXCEPT FOR THOSE BLINKETY-BLINKING BLANKETY-BLANK INCAN COINS!!!

Look them up. A quick Google search for "pirates of the caribbean incan coin" will provide both modified-for-mass-sale and in-movie results, nice clear ones. In addition to the coins having a modern, not Incan motif they look like they were cut with a frakking laser. Keep in mind these coins were supposed to be provided to Cortez, so, mid-1500s. NOW LOOK AT THEM. JUST LOOK AT THEM. DEFINE FOR ME ONE WAY IN WHICH THEY LOOK EVEN REMOTELY LIKE THEY ARE FROM THE 1530s. ONE. (They're supposed to be pure gold and they don't even look like that!) They're all a uniform size and thickness, the images on each are IDENTICAL and all struck precisely the same. This isn't just something in the background of a shot, either. They are waving one of these coins in your face for the entire movie and their existence is what drives the entire plot. There are multiple shots of Jack and Barbossa playing with the coins while they're in the chest and the climax of the film is Will dropping one. It's even more insulting because honestly, if you can figure out what kind of manacles Jack should be wearing and that the red dress Elizabeth is given to wear is a style that almost immediately predates the "latest fashion" she's given by her father, you should be able to design a realistic-looking cursed coin. It's been a few years since I've seen the movie, but I'm pretty sure there's even a shot of Jack paying for something with period-appropriate (or at least, period-appropriate-looking) coinage. SO WHY ON EARTH DID THEY FALL DOWN SO HARD ON THE INCAN COINS. REALLY GUYS, WHY.


ARRRRRGH!




(and yes, I am in this rant ignoring the fact that each of the cursed pirates had to bleed on one of the coins in order to come back to life, but it's demonstrated multiple times that they don't bleed. Trust me, that irked me too.)

Depends on the Half's date. If you showed him a 2013 Silver Proof JFK, he'd say "Okay, so I didn't live to be 96, what's the big deal?"
Or he might even think he dies at 95 years old in 2012, and they revised the Half in 2013 to pay tribute to him.

1964, though, now you're talkin'...

Errors in tv and movies uually are on purpose. Usually, if things were correct, it would bore the viewer and not keep them interested. For example, any and all law shows or movies. If proper courtroom procedure was portrayed, the viewers would fall asleep. Similar to cop shows which are even worse in relation to accuracy on policy and procedure. Coins in shows and movies are portrayed to interest, not to be accurate.

Nina,
Hello to a fellow King Fan! In case you didn't know, his new book "Joyland" comes out next month.

To anyone here who hasn't read 11/22/63, you really should. It is a GREAT book.



This took place before his first "test" trip back. There was no mention of Kennedy that I can recall until after this.
The "fifty cent piece" he gave the gate keeper may have been a Walker or Barber. although it was ages before my time, I'm sure that in 1958 they would have been common in circulation still.

At another point he forgets to leave his modern change in the present and fears that he will be picked up by the FBI if he spends a clad dime in the fifties so he disposes of the coins that were from after the date he went back. If I remember correctly, he was able to keep some non-silver coins. That makes sense since it is still common to find pre-1958 nickels and pennies.

imagine getting one of those 50+ year old coins that has 100+ years of circulation today. That would be pretty special, but you'd never know it.

In the movie lawless, when selling moonshine they get paid with national banknotes which are appropriate from the 1931 timeperiod.

I thought you were going to point this out as the error.